SGI O2 webcam

The SGI O2 workstation has a multimedia card option, fitted in the right hand side rear slot. Two versions of these are available,

• An audio only card which is of no use for a webcam as there is no video interface.
• An audio and video capture capture card. This is the card required for the webcam description. It supports video input via the analogue input on a phono connector, or the O2 camera via the SGI specific interface. This looks like a SCSI-3 connector but only supports the the O2 camera. The camera is not particularly good image quality, but good enough for a simple webcam. I have not tried the webcam capture scripts with a video (phono) input.

I believe there is a FireWire PCI card option available, but it is not cheap.

To produce a working webcam, there are several steps the capture script has to perform:-

• Set the camera parameters, chiefly the shutter speed.
• Take the picture.
• Upload it to a web server.