The EyeWriter 2.0

Step 8 Hacking the PS Eye camera - preparing

In this step we will talk about how to take apart a PS Eye camera. This is necessary for you to be able to replace the lens on the camera, insert a infrared filter and wire the v-sync.

• Get a PlayStation (PS) Eye camera. Use at your own risk because the camera will undergo modifications voiding its warranty.



• Pry the four plastic screw caps off the back of the casing. see image here



• Unscrew the four screws underneath where the screw caps were. Keep these screws because you will need some later.
  


• With all four screws removed, pry off the back half of the casing. A flathead screwdriver and hammer, or a pair of pointed pliers should work. It requires significant force so be very careful not to damage anything inside or hurt yourself. see image here



• Pull the cord aside and unscrew the two bottom screws beside the plastic holder. Keep these screws also. see image here



• Remove the stand piece.



• Unscrew the five screws around the board (two screws on the side, three screws on top). Keep these screws also. see image here



• With all five screws removed, lift the board out of the front casing.



• There are four microphones across the top of the board. Using wire cutters, clip off the microphones because they won't be used. see image here



• Now the PS Eye board is prepared for wiring. The next steps will connect wiring to the Vertical Synchronization (V-Sync) and Ground joints on the PS Eye board.

Comments

[pgadegast]

Hi,

I recently started to build an eyetracker and tried the eyewriter.

First question:
I use the linked eyewriter project, but it looks as the first eyewriter-version and calibration does not work... The software UI looks much simpler. (I got the eyewriter code working with the current open frameworks version...)

Second question:
Do I really have to do the strobing stuff? I want to build an head mounted device, using right now just one IR-Led... does the software work with a head mounted device, using only one, not strobing ir-led?

[swapnil24]

can i use web-cam?if your answer is "no" then why?

[thesystemis]

I'm not sure I understand your question -- can we use "any" webcam? At the moment, our system works by finding the vsync pin on the PS3 camera. We've found that pin on both the old design and the newer models -- we use that electrical signal to strobe 2 sets of LEDs every other frame. If another webcam could be hacked to get the same electrical signal, I guess it's also possible to use it (but we haven't tested that).

The plus side of doing this technique with strobing the LEDS (bright eye / dark eye), is that you can get a very accurate read on the position of the pupil from further away. Most commercial systems use this technique, and until now, it has been only possible with very expensive cameras that have pins for this info. Thanks to some great research from Kyle McDonald, we've been able to get the same results but on the 30$ ps3 camera.

does that help?

[Silence]

So... pretty much any camera with a V-Sync pin correct ?
I'm guessing software counts frames based on the signal to strobe the leds.

[Boudie]

GREAT Job on this one!!!

Based on a little research I did, looks like there may be a few more options for web cams. The following site has identtified the sync pins on 2 additional web cams. http://sszymczy.rootnode.net/index.php?menu=projects

[swapnil24]

thanks for being with me...but i will try to use this with web cam because i am a student. i am not able to purchase the ps3 camera..if i will have any queries with this i will again contact you.thank you