How to use USB camera on Android tablet

[stevepierce1]

Want to use my Acer 500- tablet for GPS in the car. Would like to plug in a USB camera into the USB port and run to the rear of the car to act as a "backup" camera or "see behind" camera. Have not found any apps in the Android markets that will work. Any help would be appreciated

 

[leeshor]

Want to use my Acer 500- tablet for GPS in the car. Would like to plug in a USB camera into the USB port and run to the rear of the car to act as a "backup" camera or "see behind" camera. Have not found any apps in the Android markets that will work. Any help would be appreciated

It won't work. That camera and others like it require a CD, which means drivers and/or software. Unless it says Android compatible you're not going to be able to do it. And I seriously doubt you will find one that says it works with Android.

 

[stevepierce1]

Thanks - any alternative solutions to get a rear camera and GPS in the car - I thought about a netbook but have not investigated yet.

 

[J515OP]

This is about as close as you are going to get.

 

[Androidfonefan]

I don't know if this helps but I did a search on the subject and forund a few videos, did that on my Thrive. Now that I am back on my LapTop I cant find them but they were at the YouTube sight.
Here is a link to some stuff that might help though.
usb webcam for android tablets - Google Search

 

[Jake_S]

Want to use my Acer 500- tablet for GPS in the car. Would like to plug in a USB camera into the USB port and run to the rear of the car to act as a "backup" camera or "see behind" camera. Have not found any apps in the Android markets that will work. Any help would be appreciated

I believe it can be done. I contacted Hans de Goede, a wizard on USB cameras on Linux, he thinks it can and gave a rough outline as to how

1) You need a device which can act as a usb-host, I assume that the TFT300T can do that ?

2) The device needs to support the speeds as the cam, so if your camera is a USB-2 device, the TFT300T needs to support USB-2 speeds in host modes

3) You will need to rebuild the (android) Linux kernel for your machine enabling the necessary webcam drivers

4) You need some software which can talk to regular v4l2 devices, rather than using the custom Android API, I would start with using a chrooted regular Linux (there are several regular Linux distros modified to run in a chroot under android out there)

5) Run a webcam app inside the chroot (assuming it has working X!!)

The device will obviously need to be rooted to put the new kernel on. I plan to try using OV51x drivers and probably cheese for my USB microscope camera. I'm no hacker but I'll try. My device is different to yours so what I do won't help you but the process will be the same.

 

[turbocoop]

Damn, I thought it would be easier than all this... I might just have to do it the old fashioned way and use the rear view mirror. I bet an app will come out eventually because so many people are putting tablets in their vehicles now