[ros-users] call for an official ROS USB camera package

[Eric Perko]

On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 3:40 PM, Jack O'Quin <jack.oquin at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 2:02 PM, Bill Morris <morris at ee.ccny.cuny.edu>
> wrote:
> > On Sun, 2010-12-19 at 12:46 -0600, Jack O'Quin wrote:
> >> I think it would help for the ROS community to support an official
> >> usb_camera package, like we did for camera1394. The potential user
> >> base is large.
> >>
> >> There seem to be several good drivers available in various
> >> repositories. Paradoxically, that can make it harder for users to
> >> decide which to use. A combined, fully documented and reviewed
> >> implementation would make that easier and save time for most camera
> >> users.
> >>
> >> If Eric, Ken, or someone else knowledgeable about these devices would
> >> be willing to do the technical work, I can help move it through the
> >> release review process. Maybe we could get it done in time for
> >> inclusion in Diamondback. Although this is late in the release cycle,
> >> no other core ROS components depend on it.
> >>
> >> Even if not completely ready for the initial Diamondback distribution,
> >> it might make sense to release such a package later as an enhancement.
> >
> > I have about 10 different USB cameras to test, and I'm willing to help
> > with writing code for this effort.
>
> That would be wonderful! Thanks.
>
> Perhaps some of the other package authors would also be willing to
> help. It should save us all work in the long run.
>

I'd definitely be interested in helping out.


>
> > The only question is do we start from scratch or do we use an existing
> > driver?
>
> When we started a similar effort for 1394 cameras, I tried all the
> drivers I knew about, and people made additional suggestions on the
> list. The first step was to decide which code base to start with, and
> then incorporate good ideas from the others.
>

I like this plan. My biggest question right now is what exactly is the
difference between the UVC based drivers (uvc_cam, uvc_camera) and the Bosch
usb_cam driver (or is there any) at the driver level? Also, there are a few
other drivers listed in
http://www.iheartrobotics.com/2010/05/testing-ros-usb-camera-drivers.html that
might be good to check on.


>
> Although I have not quite gotten there yet with camera1394, I believe
> everyone would prefer a BSD license to the GPL. However, if the best
> or only immediately available solution is GPL, that would still be
> better than none.
>

I would also prefer BSD, though that gets trickier with the UVC stuff. The
reason uvc_cam is GPL is that it is using code from (or at least extremely
heavily inspired by) the excellent guvcview tool, which is GPL.

- Eric


>
> Ultimately, choice of code base should be up to the maintainer.
> --
>  joq
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