A 2000 LEGO webcam now works on a modern Mac, thanks to 400 lines of code
Legocam: My Lego webcam from 2000, working on a modern Mac
The LEGO Studios MovieMaker Set camera from 2000 is a Logitech QuickCam Web inside a brick, and macOS stopped supporting it long ago. So the author wrote legocam: about 400 lines of C and Objective-C that use libusb and copy the protocol from Linux's gspca_stv06xx driver, no kernel extension required. Raw Bayer frames go to stdout for ffplay, and a second tool, obscam, pushes them through the signed OBS Virtual Camera so Zoom and FaceTime see them. It runs at roughly 5 fps.
None of this would exist without the people who wrote and kept up the Linux gspca_stv06xx driver, years ago, for a camera most people threw away.
- gregsadetsky
Incredible happenstance! I just bought the same exact cam + a few other “vintage” USB ones on ebay to film a rave happening at my place in a month.
I’m excited to try the IBM webcams, and am very tempted by an original connectix (which doesn’t have usb)
Do folks here have other recommendations for unique usb cameras?
A flir (heat) cam is tempting ofc. Anything else that’s unique and forgotten?
- utopiah
Feels like a lot of current hacks are about how to overcome the limit of a totally optional software prison rather than be creative with what can be done with the unexpected combination of software and hardware.
That's not actually progress but a regression due to walled gardens.
Thanks for opening up ... but also why even get to such a bad spot in the first place?
- lacop
> I clipped it onto my LEGO RC car base to make a spy car, and drove it around as far as the USB cable reached from my little Sony VAIO laptop.
Neat. A few years ago I made a wireless version with more modern LEGO car and RPi camera. Great fun to drive around until the latency gets you stuck and you have to pry it from behind the sofa :)
https://www.printables.com/model/343226-lego-42099-raspberry...
- asdfsa32
So this is how it is going to be? AI written everywhere?
> I read that driver and copied the protocol: which registers to write, in which order, to wake the sensor up and start streaming.
> legocam is GPL-2.0, like the driver it learned from.
Please write yourself.
- boformer
Well done! It's crazy that Apple forces you to pay to sign your own software. Another reason to never buy any of their products.