What is the optimum PC configuration for an FTIR setup ?
Does Touchlib depend on on GPU ?

As I’ve understood the FTIR setup requires less computer power, since it uses less filters. Same as for LLP I guess. But a decent dual core on about 2,4GHz should be OK
Touchlib is mostly CPU dependant, and if you do some digging on the forums here you will find out the same. But there are several here looking into dividing between hardware parts as GPU and CPU.
As for memory I’m not quite sure, but it kinda depends on what software you are using I guess. When using software as the mediaApp, I’m guessing ram is more required than when using smoke app.
But 2Gb of memory is always good.

A little digging on the forums would have gotten you far though. For later questions

Tinkerman in one of his posts suggests a quad core.... How much of a difference in touchlib apps does this make compared to a dual core ?
Isn’t performance dependant on camera as well. I currently use an XBox Live cam

anubseran - 22 July 2008 08:06 PM

Tinkerman in one of his posts suggests a quad core.... How much of a difference in touchlib apps does this make compared to a dual core ?
Isn’t performance dependant on camera as well. I currently use an XBox Live cam

USB cameras typically require more CPU power since most of them are actually USB 1.0/1.1 devices (marketing trick, since every USB1.0/1.1 device is upward compatible). Since there is a bandwidth issue (only about 10Mbs) in transfering 30fps of uncompressed video from the camera to the computer, the video data stream is usually compressed at the camera board. This results in a computer needing to decompress the stream before any additional processing is possible. Thus, higher CPU usage and, since the compression is usually lossy, higher noise in the video signal.
There are some true USB 2.0 cameras out there, and you have to carefully read the specs (chipset used in the particular camera) before finding those.
On the other hand, most firewire cameras do not use any video compression at the camera level since there is a plenty of bandwidth available. They send RAW digital video to the computer. The computer can then immediately start processing video frames from the camera. Thus, lower CPU usage as well as lower latency and noise.

~Alex

Thanks for the reply Alex.
Seems to make a lot of sense. My Xbox cam is connected to a USB 2.0 port. But, is it true that i’m still getting only USB 1.0 output ?

Ravi