UI for the camera itself

D

dchenevert

Member
My home router (a $79 Cisco) has a WWW-based user interface, to allow
users to modify its status and settings.

Could the RED camera support this kind of interface? I'm assuming that
the RED internal electronics are already going to be built around something like the
following... if not, then "never mind" for this idea.

* a CPU running an RTOS or other operating system
* a network interface (Wi-Fi? IP over USB?)
* software to serve web pages (supplied by the OS vendor, I would guess)
* camera-controlling drivers used by the regular button-and-screen user-interface
software.

The point to this idea would be to (a) lighten the requirements list for the button-and-screen
user interface, which needs to be completed in a tight time frame; and (b) allow
an arbitrarily powerful, extendable, and upgradable UI through the WWW interface. The user
would hook his PC to the RED one (using Wi-Fi or USB or whatever), and starting viewing
and controlling camera internal features and wonderfulness. You know, "rendering
obsolescence obsolete" and all that.

The button-and-screen user-interface could be shipped with version 1.0 of RED-one,
and then the WWW UI could be in a future firmware upgrade.

David

EDITED LATER: The 3d item on my list ("software to serve web pages") is
probably *not* already include in the RED-one parts list. What I mean is that
maybe it is available from the OS vendor or a 3rd party that sells software
for that OS. If there is an OS (see the 1st item).

I may have this wrong, but I vaguely remember hearing that even
low end consumer cameras run an RTOS like VxWorks from Wind River.
 
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What a great Idea! This would be truly reveloutionary. Yet so so simple. Even my 30$ Router has in inbuilt settings "website" if you call it. They all just run off html pages stored on the flash that control the variables.
 
Well isn't the point that in this camera, it is the button-and-screen user-interface that is upgradeable? To me http/html doesn't quite seem suited to controlling something as real-time as a camera (even with ajax).
 
andersh said:
Well isn't the point that in this camera, it is the button-and-screen user-interface that is upgradeable? To me http/html doesn't quite seem suited to controlling something as real-time as a camera (even with ajax).
Click to expand...
Upgrading the button-and-screen UI in firmware is great,
But you cannot add buttons or make the screen larger,
once the camera ships. You can always upgrade the html firmware
months or years after 1H07 has come and gone.

And yes, html is not for true real time. For anything truly realtime,
use the buttons.

I am assuming that all the great technology in this camera creates
a rich mix of features and options, and that this richness is complex
enough that a full screen multi-page interface would be helpful.
You could also store any configuration-related state on the PC that
you are using to view the html, and upload and download to the camera
through the browser.

The bottom line: if the camera design already includes the basic
features that are needed to support this, then this idea can
be shelved until the camera ships, and work begins on version
1.1 or 2.0 of the firmware.

If the camera is missing anything needed to allow this (I
am guessing that it may *not* have a full two-way
network interface ... oh well.), then the idea can be shelved until
work starts on version 1.1 or 2.0 of the camera body itself.
 
We've got a full web-based gui in our product. There is an onboard linux server that has full ethernet capabilities. The user plugs in their laptop or uses the onboard wireless ethernet connection to bring up a flash-based gui. You type in the ip address shown on the front of the system and then all functionality is accessible via the web interface. Very cool stuff indeed. There is no software to install and you can use anyones laptop or PDA to control it -totally operating system independent. Another advantage is that since its all web-based you can setup custom applications that utilize the TCP/IP commands. Hook the system up to an internet connection and you can control it from afar.. we've had our system running over the internet between San Jose and LA.

Here's a a few examples that can give you a good idea of whats possible with web-based apps these days...

http://examples.adobe.com/flex2/inproduct/sdk/dashboard/dashboard.html
http://examples.adobe.com/flex2/inproduct/sdk/explorer/explorer.html
http://examples.adobe.com/flex2/consulting/styleexplorer/Flex2StyleExplorer.html
 
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It is a good thing that we can upgrade the camera because there is no way to get everything done and polished up in one year... from scratch. Think of OSX.
 
Jannard said:
It is a good thing that we can upgrade the camera because there is no way to get everything done and polished up in one year... from scratch. Think of OSX.
Click to expand...

I agree... we came up with a cool way of doing firmware updates. Since we already have the ethernet all a user has to do is plug the unit into an active ethernet connection and they can automatically update everything.

Basically we can release a system that has minimal functionality that has been verified to work properly and we can incrementaly upgrade the functionality of units that are already in the field.

Maybe you can do the same with Red :)
 
Will the RED one have a network interface? or be upgradable
to a network interface in the future?

Ethernet, wifi, blue tooth, anything would be fine. I think even USB
allows a "USB to ethernet dongle"
and they probbaly have USB to wifi/bluetooth dongles soon if not now.


And yes the whole basis of my idea is "don't add this feature *now*, but
hopefully build the camera so it can be implemented later."

As long as you've got a network port, a CPU inside the box, and upgradable
firmware... the sky is the limit.
 
Jannard said:
It is a good thing that we can upgrade the camera because there is no way to get everything done and polished up in one year... from scratch. Think of OSX.
Click to expand...
I'm all about firmware updates. In addition to "fixing" issues within the camera, they also help to keep the camera current, relevant, and safeguarded from obsolescence. Things can be added to the camera that weren't even in the original plans as new ideas crop up.

With that being said, it's amazing to reflect on how much actually has been accomplished in a year. :) I can't wait to see how things turn out - and then continue to evolve after that.
 
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