Read Pictures through WebCam 1

[vbtest5]

Hi,

In one of our hotel project, the user is going to install a webcam. Now when the guest check-in, we need to scan his picture and store into database. Is there any way in VB.net to read pictures through webcam and store into database? And How do I read them back from database?

Regards,
Vilas

 

[jubble]

does your web cam application support ole automation?

if it does then you can write an application to create a web cam image and save it from the web cam application so your vb app can pick it up. It might even be possible to use the clipboard to paste the image into your program.

if it doesn't support ole automation then you have to get the web cam app to save the image somewhere that your vb app can load it. You can set up your vb app to scan that directory periodically for any new images.

that's the hard bit

to save and access the image to a database try this site (

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308042)

just as a note, if the web application doesn't support ole automation and it doesn't make it easy to save images at a specified time to a specified location then it won't be worth the hassle.

 

[vbtest5]

Hi jubble,

I did not understand your first statement.... "does your web cam application support ole automation?" ... maybe i need to make my requirements a bit more clear.

See I want to create a desktop-based VB.net app. I have recently bought Logitech webcam for this project. Now what i need is as the guest in the hotel pass through the webcam, their images should be captured via webcam, read these images using vb.net and store into database. This will help us perform check-in of guests very fast.

Regards,
VJ

 

[chrissie1]

if you don't understand what jubble said then you shouldn't even begin with something this complex.

Christiaan Baes
Belgium

If you want to get an answer read this FAQ faq796-2540
There's no such thing as a winnable war - Sting

 

[jubble]

In layman's terms OLE Automation is a communication link between your application and another application.

In your case it would be YOUR application accessing and controlling the WEB CAM application.

You may not need to access the web cam application...perhaps just the dll's, but Christiaan is right, if you don't understand OLE Automation then you need to read some articles on the topic because this will be the best way to accomplish your goals.

That's the best link between the app's... The other (workaround) link I mentioned is to have YOUR application scan the saved image directory (maybe once every five minutes) for new images, process those images and then delete them from the directory.

At lot of web cams now have a feature where they will start recording if they detect movement. Set it up to do this, save the image to a directory and then your application will pick it up when it does it's next scan on the directory.

But in the long run this solution will be a lot more work as you will probably have to resize the image, change the format, brighten it...whatever. All these can usually be done in the WEB CAM application which takes us back to OLE Automation.

Another problem with this workaround is no matter how careful you are you'll find yourself running YOUR application but not the WEB CAM application... which means you'll have the whole thing running all day only to find out when your shutting everything down that you've got no images. OLE Automation would automatically open the WEB CAM application for you.

Yes,it would be possible to do a Process Start from your VB.Net app to fix this but that's another workaround that presents more work and more pitfalls.

Good luck.

 

[vbtest5]

Hi Jubble,

Thanks for the info ... btw chrissie, I do know OLE automation has i have worked with it ... the only thing I wanted to know from Jubble was if WebCam supports OLE, if yes, how to access them via vb.net as I will need static images of guests who will check-in the hotels.

Anyways, Jubble, I got a lot of info from you and will be valuable. Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Vilas