agarbino

Hello, I'm trying to build a system that could allow synchronized recording of up to 4 video streams (+1 or 2 audio). I've looked at firewire solutions (point grey, avt) as well as analog to digital (going through something like a spectra8 ) The problem is that I need to get 24-30fps per color camera, good outdoor performance (Ie not washed out in sunlight) and keep the footage synchronized. Should I go with analog cameras converting to digital, or go digital from the beginning (eg firewire). Analog cameras are cheaper, but require a PCI board... and this would need to be portable (no rack-mounted stuff) and MUST work in outdoors/sunlight. Can someone give any advice on wheter I should choose one path over the other?? Cost is obviously an issue, but both seem to be equally expensive. Please also point me to forums/projects more specific to what I'm trying to do, I haven't found any that have done similar work... EDIT: To clarify things, this is for research, not security/commercial. One of the trials we want to do is mount this on a car (think similar to racing cars, which have 3-4 cameras and 1-2 microphones recording simultaneously). Eventually, building this into a backpack would be neat for mountain expeditions (thus, I've been favoring something like a Mac mini w/ firewire devices, but this is not a requirement!). - Alex

Can anyone else help?

Ok, here we go: I'm interested in doing some physiology research in peculiar environments/sports, mostly putting my interests (medicine) into some interesting work. I am particularly interested in fatigue/stress in sports environments, eg scuba diving (esp. cave diving), racing, flying, skiing. I'm building a modular system to acquire the relevant data in such environments. For example, I put together a basic 5-lead EKG (using RS232, now trying to switch to USB without the using serial-usb converters). I'm also capturing relevant analog signals and recording them (be they throttle position, altitude, depth, etc). But I think it would also be relevant to add to it video recording, and I'm not sure which way is suitable (analog cameras or all-digital). Basically, I want to put together a "video module" that runs from a box and can record upto 4 video streams, with some audio as well, and synchronize the whole with other readings (eg EKG, etc). The final product would thus allow me to play back video whilst simultaneously looking at whichever parameters I recorded. Power is obviously an issue, but most devices run on 12v, which is what cars (and for scuba diving, DPVs) run on, so I'll have car-battery type power. At the same time, I'm obviously trying to minimize costs, and I favor linux and embedded chips/microcontroller solutions (eg ucLinux). Obviously, this is rather ambitious, but I think ultimately can be done for a 'reasonable' sum (and I'm not looking to commercialize this). Thus, I was thinking using firewire cards (eg the Point Grey research ones) seem best, since I can just plug them in and manage the data stream via linux to time-stamp, etc. What I'm concerned about is the price and raw computing power needed to deal with the video stream, and size: whether I should go for analog system (which requires PCI cards, more power, etc but a PCI card could do the hardware compression) or fully digital (smaller size, parts count, but more processing required). Let me know if this helps/more is needed. Alex