One of the tasks in my job is to get our technology running on anything with a chip inside. 'cause I am the Linux-Dude there I was quite amazed how easy new webcams can work on linux if they just follow the USB Video Class specification.

Thanks to: linux-uvc.berlios.de and the USB standard commitee to introduce a specific class for these devices live video capture is much easier. If now only somebody could implement the same driver for Windows. The Logitech drivers are an absolute pain. To get the thumb sized Quickcam Pro for Notebooks running you need to install a behemoth of a software package that btw. does not separate the driver from the software any more. Additionally the brute-forced installed software stays in the tray and any option provided will be conveniently ignored on restart.

In related news, I added GStreamer support for AR Toolkit (in the CVS, no release yet). This positions the Linux version way ahead of the mess that the Windows version with it dependency on DirectShow is.