[ropeswing]

I'm setting up a mac with a webcam plugged in. I want to grab a static image from the webcam every minute or so (maybe have a simple script run by cron to save a png every minute).

Do webcams usually come with an interface I can access from a command line script? Do any come with a utility that I can run and get an image file out?

Any webcam recommendations? Do any come with free or open source drivers? This is for an older mac without a built-in webcam.

Thanks.

[TheoCryst]

isightcapture is a command-line utility that allows you to capture a still image from your iSight camera from the command line. It works with any webcam that is recognized by QuickTime. Sorry, I don't have any recommendations for you, though I'm sure other people are bound to.

EDIT: You may want to try asking for camera suggestions in the Consumer Hardware & Components forum.

[ropeswing]

Thanks Theo.

Looks like I either need to find a GUI app that can be set up to periodically save images, or else maybe learn some AppleScript.

I've never done any applescript, but it seems like the sort of thing where I could simply turn on quicktime player, attach it to a camera, and then have the applescript tell it to grab screenshots every n seconds...

I posted for help on this in the Applications section of the forums, but no luck. I'll try the hardware and components forum, as you suggest.

Thanks.

[Brass]

I've used isightcapture with cron and it works well.

I've also used a modified version of "Gawker" which is a GUI application for creating time-lapse movies. Also a good app. Gawker is open-source too, which suited me as I was able to modify it to allow preferences for ongoing schedule of start-stop times/days (eg, I only wanted to capture images from 8am-6pm Mon-Fri).