How to use a mobile phone camera as a video input hardware source ?

I want to use my mobile phone camera to acquire video in matlab.When i connect my phone,the system doesn't recognise it as a WEBCAM or other cam. So, Imaqhwinfo doesn't list it.Does it require any webcam driver for each kind of mobile phone, or is there a way around? Please Help..

I want to capture live video from the phone's camera (i don't want to save it in a file & then use it) &I should be able to connect the phone to my laptop either through USB cable or through bluetooth.

Answer 1

[Soham Bhattacharyya]

You can use DroidCam if you are using an android phone. You'll need to install OS Generic Video Interface driver.

Hope it helps. :)

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

I have not encountered any mobile phones that could be used as webcams. I would not say that it is generally impossible -- after all, one could, for example, probably program an Android app that allowed that kind of access (though possibly only as a series of snapshot frames.)

What kind of mobile phone were you thinking of using?

Some of the mobile phones I have used have definitely not been able to do this: on those phones, the USB connection was limited to the standard "access as a disk" configuration.

[praveen]

Thanks for the reply...

I intend to use a smartphone (running on windows mobile 6.1).

But, i want to find a way to use the mobile phone's cam irrespective of the type of phone.Or may be separate ways for each kind of phones.

I have used an app on a different phone running on symbian ,called "BTcam" which when installed on the pc and the phone makes it possible to use the phone's cam as a webcam via the app.

It supports connection through bluetooth or USB. & the phone's cam can be used for chatting on skype, or msn im etc... In skype under the webcam option, there is an option to choose this as the webcam. & similar apps may be available for other platforms (windows, Android..).

But, what i mean is : unlike skype MATLAB doesn't list it under imaqhw. May be if there is a driver which makes the pc's OS believe that the phone is a 'webcam' ! it is possible to use it for imaq in matlab.

Or is there any other solution for my question??

[Walter Roberson]

For reference: BTcam appears to be this application: http://www.mobiola.com/mobiola-web-camera

Answer 3

[Abdul Basit]

i am also trying to connect sony ericson mobile htc as webcam and i have same problem please any help me in this regard

[Walter Roberson]

Do I recall correctly that that is an Android device? Which Android version?

[Ashish Uthama]

http://lifehacker.com/5650095/ip-webcam-turns-your-android-phone-into-a-remote-camera - starting point?

Answer 4

[Madhura Suresh]

You can get apps that convert your phone into an IP camera, and use the "ipcam" command in MATLAB.