3dPrinterCameraHousing

Motivation
The motivation behind this is to make a low cost custom computer vision camera using a really low cost web cam, some lenses with different focal lengths and a 3d printed enclosure to hold the parts in the right places and allow easy mounting. The camera in question will be responsive to IR, will have quite a long focal length and will be used for Gaze Tracking using an open source library from ITU Copenhagen.

ITU Gaze Group

Camera
The camera used is a Microsoft LifeCam HD3000. It was torn down as per the following disassembly guide.

Lenses
12mm security camera lenses were selected. These have an M12 x 0.5mm thread. [Lenses from DX]

In order to mount these in a 3d printed enclosure, the hole will be made slightly smaller than the lens and tapped with the right [tap]

A prototype run of this was performed and successful with a 12mm hole. (This was performed using the [this])

Illumination
850 nm IR LEDS from ebay [http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lot-of-100-X-5mm-IR-infrared-LED-850nm-Free-Resistors-/160573822583? 850 nm IR LEDS from ebay ]

Specs: Vf = 1.5 to 1.6V If (mA): 60mA Continuous Vs = 5v -> R = 58 Ohms Vs = 12v -> R = 175 Ohms

As per the gaze tracker setup instructions, an IR source should be placed on either side of the camera, so two loose IR light sources with 4 x 5mm LEDs mounted in each

Progress
3 September First, second and third revisions were done this weekend with lots of work from Moti and Frank. Here's a photo of the performance. It's pretty good []