My lab is looking to fool a program into thinking a USB camera is running.

[deanepuddle]

Hi there!

My lab needs to run some software in Windows 10 that will only function as long as it detects the USB camera that was included in the software package. The problem is, the software really poorly utilizes this high quality camera (takes garbage resolution video in some unwieldy format), and we'd like to use this software and simultaneously record with the camera in another application. While the other program is recording, though, the original software can't detect the camera.

Is there a way to split the camera across two applications or maybe to load in a dummy device that will give an output as an extra camera?

Thanks!

 

[alexoiu]

Hi, What if using two similar cameras? One with the dedicated software, the other with the app.... It might work.

 

[johnbl]

maybe something like this:
https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-split-a-webcam-between-multiple-applications-easily/


maybe run a emulator:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1913979/how-to-emulate-usb-devices
to fake the device

I have a network port spliter that has a network monitor port that can sniff all the traffic on the other ports.
I would assume that you could also find a similar device in a USB hub. A kind of Usb hub with a monitor port for a USb analyzer. Something like https://www.eltima.com/products/usb-port-monitor/ but in hardware or some kind of USB splitter in hardware.

 

[deanepuddle]

Hi, What if using two similar cameras? One with the dedicated software, the other with the app.... It might work.

Thanks for the response. The software requires the exact model of the camera, and we don't want to spend $400+ just for a dummy camera.

 

[ko888]

Is the USB camera using a proprietary video output format? What's the brand and model of this USB camera?

 

[USAFRet]

Possibly run 2 instances, one of them in a VM.

Host OS running one, and a guest VM running another instance of it.

The guest might be able to talk to the same webcam at the same time.
Costs nothing to try.

 

[deanepuddle]

Is the USB camera using a proprietary video output format? What's the brand and model of this USB camera?

Kinda? It's some format that they allow to be converted to MP4, but the resolution is terrible.

The camera is a Sentech, one of these monochrome models: https://sentech.co.jp/en/products/USB/mini.html#cnt2nd

 

[Rocky Bennett]

Is the USB camera using a proprietary video output format? What's the brand and model of this USB camera?

Kinda? It's some format that they allow to be converted to MP4, but the resolution is terrible.

The camera is a Sentech, one of these monochrome models: https://sentech.co.jp/en/products/USB/mini.html#cnt2nd

You're never going to get good resolution from that camera.

 

[ko888]

Is the USB camera using a proprietary video output format? What's the brand and model of this USB camera?

Kinda? It's some format that they allow to be converted to MP4, but the resolution is terrible.

The camera is a Sentech, one of these monochrome models: https://sentech.co.jp/en/products/USB/mini.html#cnt2nd

That is an industrial camera. Not an IP camera or a webcam.

While the other program is recording, though, the original software can't detect the camera.

That problem is caused by the video capture driver. Your camera manufacturer's device driver developer never coded it to support multiple simultaneous output streams.

Are you using StCamSWare (v3.12) to activate the camera?

 

[deanepuddle]

Is the USB camera using a proprietary video output format? What's the brand and model of this USB camera?

Kinda? It's some format that they allow to be converted to MP4, but the resolution is terrible.

The camera is a Sentech, one of these monochrome models: https://sentech.co.jp/en/products/USB/mini.html#cnt2nd

That is an industrial camera. Not an IP camera or a webcam.

While the other program is recording, though, the original software can't detect the camera.

That problem is caused by the video capture driver. Your camera manufacturer's device driver developer never coded it to support multiple simultaneous output streams.

Are you using StCamSWare (v3.12) to activate the camera?

StCamSWare is the program we would like to use to record video, yes. Is there a way for the driver to allow "multiple simultaneous output streams"?