National Instruments NI myRIO, Essentials Manual

Page: 137 / 163

A
Recommended Equipment
A.1 USB Webcam
• Microsoft LifeCam Studio Webcam
1
pictured in Figure A.2 on the follow-
ing page; search the major resellers such as Amazon to find the best price
on this product
•
Desirable features:
– Wide range of resolutions from 176
×
144 to 1920
×
1080
– Electronically-controlled optical focus (critical for machine vision
projects!)
– Standard threaded hole (1/4"-20) for mounting to copy stand or
tripod
•
Practical considerations:
– In my experience 1280
×
720 is the highest practical resolution and I
often try to get by with 800 × 600 or 640 × 480. The highest resolution
of 1920
×
1080 has a maximum frame rate of three to five frames per
second simply to receive and display the source video, and subse-
quent processing can bring the frame rate down considerably due
to the sheer volume of required myRIO CPU time.
– The standard threaded hole is very handy as a mount to the copy
stand or tripod, however, precise alignment of the camera is very
difficult and the camera tends to bounce and vibrate because the
mounting bracket acts like spring. Use a block of material and duct
tape as suggested in Figure A.1 on the next page to stabilize the
camera against the threaded hole.
1
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/lifecam-studio