Image Capture in C#

Question

I'm working on a home project that involves comparing images to a database of images (using a quadrant - or so - histogram approach). I wanted to know what my options are in regards to web cams or other image capture devices that:

• Are easy to work with with the Windows SDK (particularly DirectShow, which I plan to use with C#)
• Have drivers for both 64-bit and 32-bit Windows Vista (and Server 2008)

I'm asking primarily so I can avoid pitfalls that other people may have experienced with web cams and to see if there are other image capture devices (or C# usable APIs) available that I should look at. I suspect that any old web cam will do but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Answer 1

If you only want images, many web cams support TWAIN -- you can use with .NET using this code

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/twaindotnet.aspx

Answer 2

I'm doing something very similar with webcams and have found that logitech and Microsoft branded webcams work just fine with DirectShow.

I've also found that many NEW webcams don't support twain, and WIA support for doing live captures has been removed in Vista, and doesn't exist in 2000, so Directshow has been the only thing that seems to work reliably accross OS's.