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M2SimpleCam
This is a simple camera program made for the JK-710DC digital camera for the
Casiopeia E125, I say simple because it doesn't come with all the bells and
whistles of the program that came with it. And as some of you might know those
so called bells and whistles takes away about 1MB of your system RAM. The M2SimpleCam
currently takes up about 150k including the digital camera driver, which I guess
is about the size of your average PPC program.
Sorry if this page is a mess.. but I've got no time to clean it up for now
I'm still trying to move in and setup infrastructure on this website. :(
Just show me where the download is!
Version History
v1.0 : 10th December 2001
- Given up on making the install CAB for now, don't have time to work on it so far. ;)
- Nothing new added since it was feature complete already, just added in an About box for
some self gratification. :P
- For developers : SOURCE CODE IS NOW AVAILABLE!!
v0.3 : 18th November 2001
- Move Files function is now in!
- Camera preview is turned off when app loses focus, just tap on the screen
or do something with the camera to restore it.
v0.2 : 11th November 2001
- Timer functions now in.
- Screen Blanking function also in.
Minor Fix : 5th November 2001
- Camera settings are now saved when you exit the program.
v0.1 : 4th November 2001
- First public release.
- Released with simple functions
- Known Bugs : Cannot hotswap camera,
must select folder to put pictures in.
Special Thanks
Before I go on I must thank the help of a few people without them I would have
never been able to complete this program:-
- Micheal Christian for pointing me to a FourCC infopage. Although I still
can't seem to convert YUV to RGB properly. :D
- Seth Cousins for trying to help me out in said YUV2RGB conversion before
I stumbled upon libJPEGce and figured I didn't need to do that.
- Andrew Yatsyk for putting out a great article about libJPEGce on PocketPC
Developer Network, and for pointing out my coding mistakes. If not for
him I'd still be fooling around with it! :P
- Gerard Samija for being my first tester, testing it on an EG-800!
Program Features
What M2SimpleCam does NOT do :-
- Does not take MOVIES! It just take snapshots, you want movie capability
find me code on how to do MPEG compression, and also on how to capture audio
data. I'm not well versed in those areas.
- It is not a PICTURE VIEWER. Granted I might put in a simple picture
viewer for quick review of shots later, but there many BETTER, FASTER
picture viewers out there. :D
- No it does NOT make the Casio camera work on any other PocketPCs.....
that is in the hands of Casio.
M2SimpleCam features that DO exists :-
- Smaller program size. 150k including camera driver.
- Somewhat more control over capture options, provides more control over JPEG
Compression and Image sharpness.
- Quicker access to setting these options. It's right in front of ya.
- Variable timer snapshot. Just set in seconds the amount of time before a
shot is taken.
- Interval timer snapshot, repeatadly take a picture after a given interval.
- Blank screen so that the above interval timer function wouldn't be that
hard on the batteries. For those who are wondering yes the preview is stopped
when you blank the screen so power ain't wasted there.
- Quick upload to storage card. If you start the program with a CF storage
card inserted you have the option to quickly move your pictures into the storage
card, kinda like changing film.
M2SimpleCam features that WILL exists when I finish it:-
- COOL!!! I'm done!!! Now to finish the install program and we can
all go to v1.0
Installation
Sorry, no CAB file or working installer yet, I haven't found the time to make one!
- Download the m2simplecam-v1.zip file,
extract somewhere on your computer and copy the 2 files Caminstaller.exe
and M2SimpleCam.exe to your PocketPC.
- Run CamInstaller.exe on your PocketPC. It'll ask if you wish to overwrite
the camera driver if it already exists on your device, seems like the driver
for both the EG800 and E125 is the same so no worries there. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE
THE DRIVER INSTALLER ON AN E115! IT WON'T WORK!!!
- If camera is not already in your device, slide it in and run M2SimpleCam.exe.
- Press Rocket button to take picture.
The program doesn't respond to hotswap of the camera yet, therefore :-
- Don't pull out the camera when the unit it on!
- If you turn off your device while the program is running, you'll have to
restart the program after you power your device backup.
Usage
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- 640x480 combo box : Selects picture resolution.
- 90 combo box : Selects JPEG compression amount, lower value means
more compression.
- AUTO combo box : Selects white balance setting.
- Medium combo box : Selects sharpness of the picture. Sharper pictures
have more well defnied edges but are also bigger.
- Snap button : Takes picture, pressing the Rocket/Launcher button
on your E125 will also take a picture
- Timer button : Takes a picture after the given amount of seconds,
which is displayed where the 10 is right now.
- Repeat button : Continuosly take a picture after the preset
interval. To Stop the timer press the button again. Note:
When timer is on your PPC will NOT go into standby mode.
- Options->Save Location: Selects folder to save pictures in. YOU
MUST SPECIFY A FOLDER IN THIS DIALOG BOX!! Or you'll have problems
taking pictures. :)
- Options->Options : Currently the only thing you can set in here
is the number of seconds the timer uses.
- Options->Move Files : If you've inserted a CF memory card instead
of the camera, or you have multiple slots (ie EG-800) Selecting this
option will ask you which card to move the files to, just choose YES
when the name of the card you want to move to comes up and all the files
from your system RAM will be MOVED to the memory card under the
same location in the card's My Documents folder as you've chosen
for the Save Location of your snapshots. YOU MUST HAVE A MY
DOCUMENTS FOLDER IN THE MEMORY CARD OR THIS OPERATION WILL FAIL!
- Help->About : Ye Old'e About dialog box.
To Blank the screen so that you can conserve batteries while using the
Repeat function, press the CONTACTS button on your E125.
To show the screen press it again.
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Known Bugs
- "No Camera Detected" message when starting program : Driver
not installed or camera is not inserted. If the camera is inserted and you
get this message, run CamInstaller.EXE and try again.
- "Can't Create Output" message when taking pictures : Either
you've run out of space, or there's no place to save the pictures in. Use
Options->Save Location and make sure to select a folder to save in.
- Screen is blank but power is ON. Press the Contacts button
to see if you've activated the screen blank function. If that doesn't work
use the voice recorder button to activate the notes application. M2SimpleCam
is programmed to turn the display back on if it isn't the active program.
Comparison
Of course there must be some difference in picture quality between the 2 programs
so here's a quick comparison of the highest quality images that can be created
by M2SimpleCam and the Casio Camera Program at 320x240.
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Casio Program
- Resolution : 320x240
- Quality : Fine
- File Size :38k
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M2SimpleCam
- Resolution : 320x240
- JPEG Compression : 100
- Sharpness : HIGH
- File Size : 69k
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So you be the judge, which is better? The Casio picture seems to have higher
color values, but you can see the edges on the sign are slightly washed out.
The M2SimpleCam picture is duller in color compartively, but it matches the
real thing better, the file size is bigger but you can see that the edges on
the sign is more clearer.
To see a comparison of 640x480 pictures including one taken by a real digital
camera click here. The page clocks
in at 500k so don't click it unless you have full intent of viewing all the
pictures. Don't kill my bandwidth for no good reason. :P
Source Code
Now to all of you who are developers out there, here it is the source code to the M2SimpleCam and
installer programs. They're eVC workspaces, so if you're not a eVC programmer please don't waste
your time on it. If you have any questions about how the code works..... well I'll try to answer
them as I'm very new to C++ myself. If you're going to use the code... well... at least mention my name
or something. :)
Stuff To Look Forward To
Well, first of all you can look forward to the features listed in the todo
part. And well... a nicer install program.. more documentation..
Hmmmm.. well some people have asked if I'd develope a control version of the program so they
can use it in eVB projects.... well I don't know maybe if I had the time, and demand was high enough ;)
But hey, I've given the source code I guess someone will work on it!
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