Palm Webcam 1.0



Introduction

Palm Webcam lets you use your camera equipped Palm OS Handheld as a Windows USB Webcam!
You will be able to use your Palm as the camera source in your favorite Webcam, Instant Messaging and Video Capture applications.

Requirements

- A Palm OS Handheld with a built-in digital camera.
- A PC running Windows 2000/XP.

Palm Webcam PC has not been tested with other versions of Windows than Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Users who have a Sony CLIE NR70V may need to update their CLIE Palm Desktop software to a newer version than the one that shipped with the NR70V.

Contents

Palm Webcam.prc. This is the Palm OS application that will be running on your Palm OS device. It communicates with the PC and streams video data from the camera over a USB connection.

Palm Webcam PC.exe. This is the Windows application that will be running on your PC. It displays the video from the camera and lets you change the webcam settings.

Palmcamusb.sys. This is the WDM (Windows Driver Model) webcam driver.


Installation

Install Palm Webcam.prc to your Palm OS device.

Starting the Palm Webcam PC application the first time will install the WDM driver automatically. It can also be installed manually from the Windows Device Manager.

User Instructions

Getting started

1.Connect the Palm device and PC via a USB cradle or cable.

2.Start both the PC app and the Palm app.

3.To start streaming video either press your handhelds hardware Capture button, the cradle’s HotSync button or tap on the Stream/Stop button on the handheld screen.

4.You should now see the camera video stream being displayed in the PC application.

5. You can now use your handheld as the camera source in your favorite Webcam, Instant Messaging and Video Capture applications!
It will show up as “Palm Handheld USB Webcam” in the camera source selection.


Palm app settings:

Frame Size

Different video frame sizes can be selected, ranging from 320x240 to 80x60.
For smaller frame sizes it takes less time to stream a single frame to the PC which generally results in higher frame rates than for larger frame sizes.
Depending on which Palm OS model Palm Webcam is used together with there are a different number of frame sizes available.
One can change the frame size while streaming by using the Up/Down hardware buttons. The JogDial on Sony devices, the Rocker on Treo devices and the Joystick on Zire devices can also be used for this.

Effect

For some of the models one can select different effects such as negative and black&white.

Brightness (Lum.)

For some of the models one can change the brightness setting.

White balance

For some of the models one can change the white balance setting.

Fps count

When streaming video to the PC the current fps count is displayed on the Palm and it tells you how many frames per second that are currently being streamed to the PC.

Frame count

The total number of frames being streamed for the current session is being displayed on the Palm.

Preprocess video

There is a user preference that decides whether or not to preprocess the video on the Palm before it is being streamed to the PC. This affects the 214x160,160x120, 107x80 and 80x60 frame sizes.

Preprocessing the video will give higher quality video for the above mentioned frame sizes but can give a lower frame rate. Preprocessing is on by default and can be deselected/selected by choosing “Preferences” in the “Webcam” menu.


PC app settings:

Preview

This option selects whether or not to show the video stream in the PC app.

Enlarge 2x

For frame sizes 160x120 and smaller this option enlarges the video frames by a factor of 2.

Flip / Mirror

These options flip and/or mirror the video either horizontally and/or vertically.

Filters

There are currently three filters that can be used to enhance the video. If the camera produces noisy images one can use ‘smoothen’ or ‘noise’ filters to reduce the noise. There is also a ‘sharpen’ filter which will make the images appear a bit sharper.

Web server

Besides using your Palm as a Webcam together with other Windows applications, such as MSN and Yahoo Messenger, there is also an option to use Palm Webcam in such a way that you can let anyone with a Java capable Web browser view the video stream from your Palm, simply by entering the IP address of the PC that you are connected to in their Web browser.

To start the server, click on the "Start server" button.
If the server is started ok, an ip adress with the chosen port number should come up below the button as a web link.
Clicking that link will popup a web browser and show the video stream in a java applet.
Starting the web server requires that a Java installation is available on your PC.

Port

The port that the web server will run with can be selected, the highest port number possible is 65535. The default port number is port 80, unless you are having problems starting the web server with port 80, such as your firewall preventing traffic to port 80, you should not have to change the port number.

Jpeg quality

The Java applet displays the individual video frames as JPEG pictures.
The quality of those JPEG pictures can be chosen between the values 1-100.
100 means best quality but largest file size - 1 is worse quality but smallest file size.

-You can choose to enlarge the frames by a factor of 2 if the frame size is 160x120 or smaller.

Links to select Windows applications

These Windows applications are some of the applications that make use of webcams and have been tested together with Palm Webcam.

MSN Messenger - Instant messaging and video conferencing
Yahoo Messenger - Instant messaging and video conferencing
EyeBall Chat - Instant messaging and video conferencing
AMCAP - Video Capture application
Windows Movie Maker - Video Capture application - Available in Windows XP from Start Menu --> All Programs --> Accessories --> Windows Movie Maker

Registration

Palm Webcam can be used without registering during a trial period of 14 days.
During the trial period a text string is written to the video stream and you will be asked to register when starting the Palm app. This is removed in the registered version.

When the trial period is over a registration code is needed for further usage of Palm Webcam. Get your registration code from www.clievideo.com

For more information, support and FAQs visit our site www.clievideo.com.

Enjoy the new webcam capabilities of your Palm!