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Harley
Up and Coming
May 14, 2013

Raspberry Pi camera module - Could it be modded for Oculus?

Raspberry Pi project's camera module is on sale from today, could they be modded cheaply for the Oculus Rift input?

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/3890

Use two for stereoscopic 3D, and just mod cameras with cheap 'fish-eye lens' to get a FOV closer to that of the Rift.

I guess you would still also require a separate microcontroller with digital camera interface for USB connection to your PC (without connecting a full Raspberry Pi to use it as the micro controller) if you wanted mod it to mount them directly on or inside the Oculus Rift with as low latency as possible for good augmented reality use?


These are otherwise tiny sized modules, very now price at around $25, and great image quality and high frame rate.

Five megapixel fixed-focus shooter, the module measure in at 25 x 20 x 9mm, (the actual sensor itself is only 8x8x5mm), can snap 2,592 x 1,944-pixel images, and capture video at 1,080p (30fps), 720p (60fps), and VGA (60 or 90fps).

http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/camerafront.jpg

http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/cameraback.jpg


You can buy this camera module from RS Components or from Premier Farnell/Element14:

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi

http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi

    14 replies

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    haberkern
    Participant
    August 23, 2013
    p.s. you don't need two separate video streams for 3D. just a stereoscopic splitter (glass). Keeps the bandwidth and power usage down.

    for example: http://www.3dstereo.com/viewmaster/3dyc.html
    Chewie
    New Participant
    August 25, 2013
    Replying to follow replies on this thread :)
    Jstsqzd
    Participant
    August 28, 2013
    So i did a little bit of digging. Rasp pi cannot handle 2 streams, only good for 1 in 1 out. Looked at the stereo lens thing, seems doable, probably necessary if you want to use the pi. Says they are meant for camera with no lens. Don't know if any of those would work with the pi camera, or could be modified to. Pi runs on battery power no problem

    The infrared filter on the camera is removable with a little elbow grease. Night vision here we go!

    Instead of the pi, maybe an android phone with a 3d camera would be better. Looks like the cameras are too close together, don't know if that would cause any problems.

    haberkern
    Participant
    September 11, 2013
    "Jstsqzd" wrote:
    So i did a little bit of digging. Rasp pi cannot handle 2 streams, only good for 1 in 1 out. Looked at the stereo lens thing, seems doable, probably necessary if you want to use the pi. Says they are meant for camera with no lens. Don't know if any of those would work with the pi camera, or could be modified to. Pi runs on battery power no problem

    The infrared filter on the camera is removable with a little elbow grease. Night vision here we go!

    Instead of the pi, maybe an android phone with a 3d camera would be better. Looks like the cameras are too close together, don't know if that would cause any problems.




    You are allowed to laugh at this since i did when i tried it, but I went to home depot and grabbed two door keyhole lenses (they fit perfectly around the RPi cam module and make a nice 160 degree fisheye) and played with stereo splitting into them. It will take a few mirror slices and a gentle braze, but it looks like it should work quite well for a (slightly) stereo view. I say slightly because i can't see separating the 'eyes' more than a few inches.
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