What do I want to make a video recording kiosk?

October 17, 2011 11:53 AM

Say I have a computer (Mac) with a web cam. What's a good way to build an otherwise simple program that can record and play back what happens on the web cam? (With the audio)

My first thought was creating it as an Adobe AIR application, since it's something I'm familiar with and it can access the camera, but it sounds like actually saving the video file (with audio) has the potential to get all rabbit hole on me.

Is there something else that would do more of the video stuff straight out of the box but would be flexible enough to let me control behaviour like showing an intro video and having a questionnaire before starting to record?

posted by RobotHero to computers & internet (7 answers total)

Maybe I am unclear on exactly what you want, but can you just use Photo Booth or iMovie?
posted by 3FLryan at 12:02 PM on October 17, 2011

Suppose I want the ability to create a more customized experience than I think I would get with just Photo Booth or iMovie. This is supposed to be like a kiosk type situation where Joe Public can come up and start clicking. So I would like something where I can program the interaction a little.
posted by RobotHero at 12:18 PM on October 17, 2011

This is what I was did for one installation with MAX/MSP and/or Cycling '74 back in the day. This was back in 2005 (?) at a workshop at a local artist-ran media arts center.
posted by sleslie at 12:28 PM on October 17, 2011

openFrameworks makes things like this easy, if you know C++.
posted by mkb at 1:53 PM on October 17, 2011

Quartz Composer is built for this, a graphical programming language for handling AV input and output. If you do work in Flash, you can quickly get working with QC. It includes the ability to pull audio and video signal from digital camera sources, as well as process and output signal to destinations of your choice (screen, speakers, etc.).

Quartz Composer is part of the Xcode installer, which is a free download via the Mac App Store.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:56 PM on October 17, 2011

Processing could do this, if you're able to work with Java.
posted by iamscott at 5:21 PM on October 17, 2011

Not sure about all the introduction and questionnaire stuff, but, QuickTime Player will record video right out of the box. Maybe you can build off that built-in ability?
posted by Thorzdad at 5:44 AM on October 18, 2011