Synchronizing cameras by shorting their pixel clock pins?

Thread Starter

murrdpirate

Joined Sep 19, 2011
5
Hi,

I'm working on an application similar to computer stereo vision, expect that I have 8 cameras and the synchronization required is even more strict. At the moment, I have 8 Microsoft HD-5000 webcams hooked up to my desktop computer using PCI USB controllers. Since they output at 720p, 30fps, I am able to grab a 720p frame from each of them within 1/30th of a second, but currently I cannot synchronize them any further than that.

Is there any way I can improve this? One thing I was considering (and read about), is shorting the pixel clock pin from 1 camera to the other 7 cameras so that they all reference the same pixel clock. Would that work? I think each camera sets its own pixel clock, and thus maybe it would work, but I couldn't rule out this being set by the computer.

This might be a great solution for me, since I don't need to precisely control when the pictures are taken (often accomplished using expensive hardware triggers), but I do need to make sure the pictures are taken at very close to the same time.
 
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