kilgota@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Sun, 22 Feb 2009, Hans de Goede wrote:
kilgota@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
<snip>
Hans and Adam,
I am not sure how it fits into the above discussion, but perhaps it
is relevant to point out that flags can be toggled. Here is what I mean:
Suppose that we have two flags 01 and 10 (i.e. 2), and 01 signifies
VFLIP and 10 signifies HFLIP.
Then for an "ordinary" camera in ordinary position these are
initialized as 00. If the "ordinary" camera is turned in some funny
way (and it is possible to know that) then one or both of these flags
gets turned off.
But if it is a "funny" camera like some of the SQ905s the initial
values are 1 and 1, because the sensor is in fact mounted upside
down. Now, suppose that there is some camera in the future which,
just like this, has the sensor upside down, and suppose that said
hypothetical camera also has the ability to "know" that it has been
turned over so what was upside down is now right side up. Well, all
that one has to do is to flip the two bits from whatever they were to
have instead the opposite values!
Observe that this would take care of the orientation problem both for
cameras which had the sensor mounted right in the first place, and
for cameras which had the sensor mounted wrong in the first place.
Just use the same two bits to describe the sensor orientation, and if
there is any reason (based upon some ability to know that the camera
orientation is now different) that the orientation should change,
then just flip the bits as appropriate.
Then it would be the job of the support module to provide proper
initial values only for these bits, and everything else could be done
later on, in userspace.
Theodore Kilgore
Theodore,
We want to be able to differentiate between a cam which has its sensor
mounted upside down, and a cam which can be pivotted and happens to be
upside down at the moment, in case of any upside down mounted sensor,
we will always want to compentsate, in case of a pivotting camera
wether we compensate or not could be a user preference.
So in you example of an upside down mounted sensor in a pivotting
encasing and the encasing is pivotted 180 degrees we would have the
hflip and vflip bits set for sensor orientation and we would have the
pivotted 180 degrees bit set. If the user has choosen to compensate
for pivotting the default, we would do nothing. But it is important to
be able to differentiate between the 2.
Hans,
I am not sure if we are talking past each other, or what. But I was
pointing out that the initial values of two bits can indicate the
"default" orientation of the sensor, and this can be done permanently in
the module, which transmits the initial setting of those two bits to
anything up the line which is interested or curious to know those
initial values. The information in those two bits will definitely tell
whether the sensor is mounted upside down in the camera. For example, if
it is mounted upside down, then they are both set in the module to "on"
and exported therefrom. But if the sensor is mounted correctly, then
both of them are set to "off" and similarly exported.
Now if any application for any reason (such as "knowing" that the camera
is upside down or is pointing in the opposite direction, or into a
mirror) wants to change the defaults, all it has to do is to toggle the
bits.
But, hmmm. Perhaps there is the question about how the app "knows" that
the camera is upside down or is pointed in another direction. If the
camera has a gyroscope inside, for example, then it could be the camera
which needs to tell to the app about the current orientation, or else
the app would not have any way to know ... Is this the problem, then?
For that kind of thing, one might need more than two bits in order to
pass the needed information.
Yes that is what we are talking about, the camera having a gravity switch
(usually nothing as advanced as a gyroscope). Also the bits we are talking
about are in a struct which communicates information one way, from the camera
to userspace, so there is no way to clear the bits to make the camera do something.
Regards,
Hans
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