CoppeliaSim forums

Hello Forum,
I'm new to V-REP. I've been a couple of days trying to use the webcam model, with no results. I keep on getting the "The webcam at the given index could not be initialized" error, and I have no clue of what should I do to make it work for me!
The error comes when the scripts is in this line "initialization,deviceResolution[1],deviceResolution[2]=simExtCamStart(deviceIndex,deviceResolution[1],deviceResolution[2])", so I suppose the error is because of the "simExtCamStart" function.
Where could I find some info/documentation about the webcam plugin, and particularly, about this function? I've been surfing the help files and this forum but I haven't found anything.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

PS: And also, where could I get the source code in case I'd like to use this on Linux? It's mentioned when you place the webcam model in a scene, but again, no clue who/where should I ask for it...

Hello,

you can find the source code to the Webcam plugin in the folder programming/windowsOnlyProjects/v_repExtCam. As the folder name says, the plugin currently only runs on Windows. Probably it would be not too difficult to adjust it for other platforms.

Cheers

Nice, thank you! :)

Hello,

Can an integrated webcam be used in v-rep ? (as those on laptops) , or it must be a webcam connected trough USB ?

Have an integrated webcam on my laptop and got the same error as above..

Thanks.

Hi Cozzy,
I used an integrated camera, running on a laptop with Windows XP.
I still have no clue on what the problem was, but when I tried in another laptop (but with Windows 8.1) then it magically started working. But not always, it sometimes (maybe 20% of the times) it still gives me the same error (then I just have to close and open V-REP again). It's quite weird and annoying...

So it isn't for sure a hardware problem. My integrated webcam works fine in other applications but in v-rep still not:( . I am running win 7 and see that the plugin should work :(. I will try soon with an USB connected webcam.

Maybe someone from coppelia staff could help please.

I still have two more questions:

1. It is possible to manually select the camera source ?
2. It is somehow possible to USE the online streaming of an IP cam for image processing ?

Thank you.

Hi

I realized that this problem happens with the plugin on releases > 3.0.5. if u have your hands on an older version of v-rep that could be a temporary patch.

You can select an other camera by changing the index in the simulation s parameter of the script attached to the webcam object. The index goes from 0 to numberOfConnectedCameras-1. By default it is set at 0 (which is the index of the 1st found cam driver)

If you want to get the image from an IP cam you can use a software like manycam that puts the video stream into a cam driver. Manycam is not free (or free but with a watermark ) so whoever finds a free/ better solution to stream an ip stream into a cam driver please share!

Cheers

Eric

Cozzy and Eric,

you could try to directly access the streamed image of an IP cam (without the detour of an auxiliary software), from inside of a plugin. If interested, we can help you with the plugin details.

Cheers

Thank you a lot for you answers.

I've tried today again with the laptop's integrated camera , then also with an usb connected one.
I even tried to modify the index number in script and from 0 to 3 same error "camera at given index could not be initialized". If i set the index number >3 it says "Plugin not found."

I am running V-rep Edu version 3.1.1

First i need to solve this thing with the webcam. But after i will get over this step , i will be grateful for any help about the plugin for using an online streaming of an ip cam.

The best to do probably, it to integrate OpenCV via a plugin. OpenCV allows to access webcam data (and probably also network cams) in a platform-independent fashion.
We'll try to put this onto our todo list.
btw, there is already an OpenCV bridge for V-REP, courtesy of Marco Bellaccini, located in programming/v_repExtOpenCVBridge

Cheers