Getting iSight to work

[northjack]

Has this worked for anyone? I have a MacBook Pro, internal iSight. I used to work in video production...I'm aware of lighting, focusing, etc. I've tried different lighting environments, and, of course, the internal iSight has no controls for macro focus. (I downloaded the demo of iGlasses 2.0, but it offers no focus control for internal iSights.) I have tried holding the DVD barcode farther away (like 12 inches, or so, and close (maybe 2 inches?) Trying to make the code fill the horizontal guide lines from left to right. Flashlights for more light, etc. Nothing seems to work. (I have not tried setting up a whole lighting rig, with photographers' style fill lights, but it the marketing for this programs makes it sound as if well-lit "normal" room lighting would work.)

[Conor]

Make sure that iGlasses is not flipping the frame. If mirroring is on iGlasses the frame is in the wrong direction for the barcode scanner. Also disable any extra QuickTime components that might affect the internal capture. You can find them in /Library/Quicktime and your home folder ~/Library/QuickTime (you need to log out and back in after moving them out of the folder). A handful of users have problems with the scanner but I haven't been able to determine what it is this users have in common. What OS X version are you running and what year is your MacBook Pro from (prior to mid 2007)?

[northjack]

I have uninstalled iGlasses. There is no Quicktime folder in Library...I don't think I have it installed. (I know I haven't directly installed it.) The MacBook Pro is less than a year old...purchased in March 2008. OSX 10.5.4

Thanks for your quick reply.

[Meng]

I'm having the same problem after buying a brand new MacBook Pro. I'm only getting a successful scan about a third of the time whereas it worked almost every time on my old three-year old laptop.

[Conor]

I made some adjustments, please try out the Bookpedia or DVDpedia beta.

[northjack]

Just tried the dvdpedia beta...same result. The isight just can't focus that close, is that right? I hold the barcode close enough to fill the width of the horizontal lines. I've also tried moving the dvd farther away, shooting for a sharp focus rather than filling the space of the scan lines. Nothing works.

[caseelse]

Hi,

I had the same problem with my MacBook pro with internal iSight. After a bit of experimenting, I found that I get the best results in daylight. In artificial lighting it's next to impossible to get the barcode recognised. (And if it does get recognised, the search result for the barcode is something completely different.)

I've basically stopped using the barcode recognition. Instead, I look for the new DVD in Amazon and drag the icon onto the DVDpedia main window. Works much faster and is more reliable.

cheers
Holger

[Conor]

On the new Mac Book Pro and Mac Book the camera changed once again. So we are exploring them right now, but they added a less expensive camera with less resolution and a longer focus than the previous generation making the recognition problem harder.

[viclauyyc]

I have the same problem too. Try different lighting, it just won't work. However, when I use Delicious Library's bar code thing, it works, fast and easy. I suspect the iSight feed should change to black and white to fix the problem. Any idea? thanks

[Conor]

Thank you for the suggestion on the black and white. We did try it out but the color image actually gives slightly more contrast than the black and white processed frame. As we can pull the green channel from the RGB image that reacts to contrast sharper than the other two. In the latest version we use the native camera format that has a luminance number and that is what we use for the calculation.

[viclauyyc]

So is there any solution?

when i try to scan, at some point the red bars did turn green. But there is no sound or actual input.

thanks

[Nora]

Do download this special version of Bookpedia which will tell us more about the type of camera you have.
After you've downloaded it, run the iSight feature once and then have a look at your console log for messages from Bookpedia. You can access the console log via the application 'Console', located inside your Applications/Utilities. The newer messages are towards the end of the log. There should be a message from Bookpedia that includes "Device:" and the camera product ID.

[viclauyyc]

03/02/09 4:25:07 AM Bookpedia[6712] Device: UVC Camera VendorID_1452 ProductID_34049

thanks

[Nora]

Unfortunately the ProductID_34049 camera is a rare camera that Apple put into a few models of their computers and we can't really figure out what makes it so different and more finicky about scanning. It's most likely that the focal length is not the same and we have to improve our code to be able to handle even more blurry barcodes. Thank you for verifying that for us. We'll let you know if we come up with any improvements on the scanning.

[viclauyyc]

I got a Logitech QuickCam for Notebook Pro and try to use it instead of the iSight on my MBP. But the DVDpedia don't pick up its signal.
It still use the iSight. Is there a way to get this works?

Thanks