Personal Black Box? Vuze+ Camera system.

jim bell jdb10987 at yahoo.com
Wed Jun 17 00:03:46 PDT 2020


 

    On Tuesday, June 16, 2020, 11:34:18 PM PDT, jim bell <jdb10987 at yahoo.com> wrote:  
 
  
(this mail was bounced a few times due to the failure of the server, I think.)

I just sent the following to the manufacturer of the Vuze+ camera system:    https://vuze.camera/camera/vuze-plus-camera
Among a group of people on an email list, I am trying to spur the development of a wearable "360-degree" camera system that could use your Vuze+ device as a major component.  However, some level of expansion will be necessary, to be achieved by inclusion of other components.
1.   Expansion of the data stored to substantially greater than "2 hours", probably using a commercial SSD device.  (not merely larger SD cards, especially since their capacity at any level of technology are limited.)
2.   Expansion of the battery capacity to substantially greater than (2 hours), probably using a commercial battery pack.
3.  All or most of the data stream generated should be transmitted, perhaps by WiFi, to a nearby person or people, each carrying a storage system, there to be stored locally. (each such person may, or may not, carry a similar camera system.) The purpose of this  precaution is to ensure that even if the device is completely and instantly lost or destroyed, most of the data remains available.
4.  Some portion of the data will be transmitted, presumably by 4G or 5G, possibly so that it can be placed on a website and live-streamed.  Due to the data capacity limitations of 4G, or even 5G, I anticipate that only a fraction of the entire data stream can be immediately exported in this way.  Perhaps, for example, only one of every two, or only one of every 3, or only one of every 4, or even less, of the frames in the video can be exported by 4G or 5G.  
One reason for the capacity limitation, I anticipate, is that I expect that this system may be used in a crowd, where hundreds of other people nearby may be also recording and transmitting video.  My understanding is that your product compresses video data.  But for my purposes, it is importantant that it not be necessary to transmit the entire video stream:  It should be possible to separate the data so  that the portion of the data being tranmitted (say by 4G or 5G) can recover a useable portion of the video.  I realize that this might only transmit a fraction of the frames, and thus the output will be jerky, but I understand that this will an unavoidable limitation of the system.  What I do not know is if the compression provided in your Vuze+ (or other products) will be compatible with this handling of the data.    A data compression system that only allows "all" of the data to be generated and transmitted would be a problem.  I can see from your product's description that it contains WiFi 4 (802.11n) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi states that this can handle a linke of "72-600" megabits/second.  But I also notice that your product has one option of generating 80 megabytes per second, and that would be 640 megabits per second.  Does that mean that your device can, or cannot, transmit the camera's output in real-time by WiFi?Also, is there any prospect of upgrading the WiFi capability of your product to WiFi5 or higher, and thus allow the transmission of (802.11ac) , or "433–6933 Mbit/s"?
Along with carrying your Vuze+ camera device, I anticipate that the cameraman will be carrying:
a.   A commercial battery pack, to augment the other battery packs in your device, and in a smartphone, and to supply a SSD device.
b.  A SSD device, perhaps with the capability of storing 1, 2, or more terabytes of video data.
c.  The entire arrangement will probably be controlled by a near-state-of-the-art commercial smartphone, ideally one which is capable of 5G data transmission.  
While it is said that a fully-implemented 5G system will allow transmission of as much as 10 gigabits/second, I also understand that to achieve this data rate will require installation of substantially advanced neighborhood hardware, which will probably only occur over a period of years.  
Dpes it appear to you that the system I anticipate can be built, in part using your Vuze+ camera system, or perhaps one of your other systems?
[end of message to the Vuze+ manufacturer]

--------------------------------------

On Monday, June 15, 2020, 04:58:07 PM PDT, jim bell <jdb10987 at yahoo.com> wrote:

I've done some more research, and it seems that existing components could do a substantial part of this project.  Consider the Vuze camera, specifically the Vuze+.    https://vuze.camera/  
It has 8 cameras, in four pairs, aiming in the horizontal plane, and is able to use them to record stereoscopic views.   https://vuze.camera/camera/vuze-plus-camera  
   This MIGHT be even better than I anticipated.  This device refers to recording data on SD cards.   Great, unless the device is smashed or stolen.  I consider it to be an essential part of this device that it port a substantial fraction of the data away from the cameraman, perhaps many tens of meters away.  But it mentions WiFi:  Does that mean that the entire data stream can be transmitted?   Even if the data can be only transmitted 'nearby', say 30-100 meters away, by WiFi, that would be a great feature.  
The specification sheet      https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91Hcr5ModJL.pdf   mentions a data rate of 120 MB/second or 80MB/second.  Note that it's MB, meaning megaBYTE per second, not merely megabit/second.  
The specs say that the data is written to a SD card.  Can this be expanded using a 1 terabyte (or  larger) SSD?  Unclear.  The data is compressed to MP4.
It also mentions:   WiFi IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4 GHZ
I can tell, from:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi     that WiFi4, 802.11n can do a link from:  "72-600 million bits per second".
Already, I see a hitch:  Does this mean that this device can transmit 80MB x 8 bits, or 640 megabits/second, since the link can only go to "600 million bits per second".  
While it would be nice to be able to transmit the entire data stream locally, as long as all that stream goes into a local SSD, I suppose it would be okay if "only" half the data, say 320 megabits/second, were transmitted by WiFi to another portable system carried by a different person a few tens of meters away.   But one question I have is this:  Can the data stream be readily 'split up', so that only a portion of it is transmitted?  Or is it an 'all or nothing' sort of thing?
And I think it's important that a smaller fraction of the data be transmitted by 4G or 5G cell data.  
                         Jim Bell

    
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