Video Surveillance using altera fpga DE2 board

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

I need some recommendations on what type of camera to be used for my project. My project is basically using camera to monitor a room, and transfer the data to FPGA. Next the data will be transfered from fpga to pc through ethernet cable.  There are RS-232 port, USB port , and the GPIO port. What kind of camera should i use to interface to either one of this port?:confused:

[Altera_Forum]

How about this one? 

http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=68&no=281

[Altera_Forum]

thanks for the suggestion, unfortunatly it is too expensive, $85..... 

 and one more thing i didnt understand is how it transfer image captured to pc?  is there any other camera other than this? you suggestion really means a lot to me, i am really confused about the suitability of camera with FPGA.

[Altera_Forum]

The big advantage of this camera over other ones is that you can directly plug it on your kit and it will be connected to the FPGA. If you want to connect a cheap usb webcam it is a lot more difficult because you would need to implement a USB master on the FPGA, and I don't think the DE2 provides this. 

To transfer the image to PC the more efficient way is Ethernet. You may be able to transfer data on the USB blaster interface through JTAG but this is quite slow, probably too slow for video.

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks for the reply, can u explain to me about this USB master, is it can be built inside DE2 through verilog? 

 For data transfer through ethernet, do i need to understand about the TCP/IP protocol?  Thank you very much:D

[Altera_Forum]

No the DE2 doesn't have the required hardware to implement a USB master. I'm not aware of any easy way to implement one on the Altera FPGA kits available today. The Terrasic camera daughter card is most probably the easiest solution. 

For data transfer you should either use TCP/IP or UDP/IP. UDP is usually more suited for streams, especially video.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi thanks for your reply,  

 http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=68&no=281&partno=2#section (http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=68&no=281&partno=2#section)  I read about the TRDB_D5M digital camera package. It says that " Software allows users to upload the picture captured into PC and save the picture into bitmap format or Joint Photographic Experts Group for viewing. " the top link is the link for the camera  but how does it transfer to pc? through what port?  Thanks

[Altera_Forum]

I don't have the kit so I can't answer but basically the two options are Ethernet or JTAG. I'm guessing they are using JTAG in their application, but it is a rather slow interface. It could be usable to transfer one image, but it is probably to slow for video.

[Altera_Forum]

They use JTAG. Single images are implied by the use of the terms "captured" and "picture".

[Altera_Forum]

Will it allow video recording and transfer of video to pc?

[Altera_Forum]

Not through JTAG, I really doubt it. You need Ethernet

[Altera_Forum]

No, single images only.

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks for your reply guys. Really appreciate it.....

[Altera_Forum]

Hi guys, I found out that DE2 has a philips1362 USB controller... can it be used so DE2 can connect to a USB camera? 

 from the data sheet it says " The DE2 board provides both USB host and device interfaces using the Philips ISP1362 single-chip USB controller".....

[Altera_Forum]

In theory it should be possible, but I don't think you'll find any example software for this functionality on the DE2. You will have to write yourself the software driver for the USB host, and a driver to access the USB camera. I have no idea on how complex this task could be, but I'm guessing it would require a lot of work.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, im still confused on what camera to use for my project...... any other suggestion other than the TRDB_D5M(which is expensive). The camera should be at a reasonable price and able to communicate with FPGA to store data inside the FPGA.... i really need some suggestion, currently dont know what kind of camera is compatible since i am new to FPGA..