Photobooth Round 2 - Derby Day

I was having my first real party after buying my new place, so I decided to revive the photobooth to commemorate it. Only this time I took pictures!

The guts (camera, printer, software) were basically the same, but I had to build a new booth, since all I had from the last one was the white backdrop.

Despite using all the same software, I still hit a few glitches. First, I decided I wanted to upgrade the camera to something that would do a live preview while it was being controlled from the computer. That way, I wouldn't have to deal with getting the webcam pointed at the same spot as the actual camera. The readme for the Canon remote software has a list of cameras that can do that:

5. CAMERAS SUPPORTING IMAGE DISPLAY
================================================

The following Canon camera(s) can display the image on their LCD monitor
or output it to the Video Out terminal while connected to RemoteCapture.

- Canon PowerShot G2
- Canon PowerShot S40
- Canon PowerShot S30
- Canon PowerShot G3
- Canon PowerShot S45
- Canon PowerShot A70
- Canon PowerShot A60
- Canon PowerShot S50
- Canon PowerShot G5

Note
Please note that images in the camera's LCD monitor and Video Out output only
reflect the optical zoom and not the digital zoom when the digital zoom is
adjusted.
Please use the viewfinder display in the RemoteCapture Shooting window when
setting the digital zoom.

I bought a cheap Powershot S30 off of eBay to give it a try. Unfortunately, I was never able to get the A/V out to stay on once I plugged in the USB cable. Additionally, either the plug or my cord were faulty, so I had to hold it in a particular way to get video at all. Since I wasn't really able to get it working the way I wanted, I took the camera apart to take a look at the A/V jack and ended up breaking the whole thing. It won't even turn on now. Oh well -- back to the trusty A20 + webcam.

The second problem I has was that, for whatever reason, the Perl script I'd been using with the panic button was no longer working. I found a Python script that did work (once I got all the modules installed) and used that instead. Actually, it looks like someone just recently released a Python library that would simplify the script dramatically. Too bad I only found that now...

Anyway, here's what I had to do to get it working from a fresh install of Mint:
1) Download and extract pyusb
2) Open a command prompt and cd into the pyusb directory
3) sudo apt-get install libusb
4) sudo python setup.py install

And here's the exact Python script I used:
#!/usr/bin/python

# change the FILE= to point to the file you want mplayer to play
# change the very last line to change the command


# This work is licensed under the New BSD License
#
#Copyright (c) , Ross Bevington
#
#All rights reserved.
#
#Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
#
# * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
# * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
# * Neither the name of the author nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
#
#THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
#"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
#LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
#A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR
#CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
#EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
#PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
#PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
#LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
#NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
#SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

# start PyPanic

import usb
import time
import os

DEVICEID = 0x1130
PRODUCTID = 0x0202
FILE = "/home/acid2000/Desktop/air_raid_siren.wav"

device = 0;

# find device
busses = usb.busses()

for bus in busses:
devices = bus.devices
for dev in devices:
#print dev.idVendor, dev.idProduct
if dev.idVendor==DEVICEID and dev.idProduct==PRODUCTID:
device = dev
conf = dev.configurations[0]
intf = conf.interfaces[0][0]
if device == 0:
print "Could not find device"
exit()

# device find, now open it and claim

interface = device.open()
interface.reset()
interface.detachKernelDriver(0)
interface.detachKernelDriver(1)
interface.setConfiguration(conf)
interface.claimInterface(intf)

bufferA = (0x55, 0x53, 0x42, 0x43, 0, 8, 1, 0)
bufferB = 0x08
while (True):
time.sleep(0.2)
interface.controlMsg(0x21, 0x09, bufferA, value=0x200, index=0x001)
result = interface.controlMsg(0xa1, 0x01, bufferB, value=0x300, index=0)
if result[0] == 0x1:
os.spawnvp(os.P_WAIT,"/usr/bin/mplayer",["", FILE])

And, finally, the last glitch I ran into was that the printer was only printing on the bottom 1/8th of the page. I change the print command in take.sh to force the media size:

lp -o media=Custom.4x6in print.ps

Other than that, everything works just the same way it did last time. Next up: booth construction!