HOWTO: Use QuickCam With XrayVision

In order to get the most out of using the QuickCam intra-oral camera in the XrayVision® (XV) application, the QuickCam extension must first be installed.   The QuickCam extension installation can be found at XV's Analog Intraoral Video download site located at http://www.apteryx.com/software-updates.   Download the QuickCamUpgrader.exe, close XV on all computers, and run the file to install the QuickCam extension.

Selecting QuickCam As The Real-Time Video Source

Once the QuickCam extension upgrade has been installed, XV should be setup to use the QuickCam real-time video capture instead of the default real-time video capture (which does not support the various extra features that the QuickCam camera provides).   Refer to HOWTO: Specifying The Video Source for instructions.

Differences From The Real-Time Video Extension

Even though images can still be captured from the QuickCam using a standard real-time video source, the standard Real-Time Video extension does not support switching between automatic and manual focusing modes, hardware supported non-interlaced video signals, automatic image mirroring, or white balance.

Foot Pedal Functionality

One big difference between the RTV and the QuickCam extensions is the functionality that is associated with a foot pedal.

• In the RTV extension, the user has the ability to assign different functions to each of the foot pedal buttons (i.e. capture, retake, quit, etc.).
• In QuickCam, the foot pedal is used to automatically switch between manual and auto focus modes as well as control the focus when in manual focus mode.

To switch to manual focus mode, simply press one of the foot pedals (the current focus mode is displayed on the QuickCam dialog).   While in manual mode, the left and right foot pedals can be used to move between macro and micro focusing.   To switch from manual mode back into auto focus mode, simply double-click one of the foot pedals.
 

QuickCam Foot Pedal

While the standard foot pedals can be used to manually focus the QuickCam camera, the foot pedal that comes with the QuickCam system (the foot pedal that plugs directly into the video card) is used to actually capture an image.

Restrictions And Limitations Of The System

The user should be aware of the following when using the QuickCam system:

1. The QuickCam does not support all video capture sizes.   If nothing is returned from the video hardware when performing an image capture, it is possibly due to an unsupported video size.   Should this occur, try selecting a different video size from the QuickCam interface under Video Options > Video Format and then retry the operation.   The default settings that should tried under the Video Format and Video Source menu options are NTSC-US and 640x480.

2. The QuickCam driver does not always support full screen preview.   Due to this size restriction, the real-time video in may be displayed in full-screen, but the actual video may only be displayed in a portion of the screen.

3. The BT878 video driver can only capture images in the 734x538 to 768x568 size range.