Make sure the lens on your camera can view the entire table surface area.  For example a 4.3mm focal lens on Philips SPC900 views an area of about 24x27 inches when mounted 90cm away.

It is recommended to use a camera with a high frame rate (30fps or higher) and little low light noise.

The webcam’s lens will need to be modified so that it doesn’t block Infra Red light.  On cheap webcams there is usually a filter that can be popped off, but on expensive cameras this filter is usually applied directly to the lens and cannot be modified.  Security camera shops sell IR lenses, make sure you get one that is compatible with your camera, most webcams use M12x0.5 mount. Most cameras will show some infrared light without modification, but much better performance can be achieved if the filter is replaced.

Try to find a 4.3 MM CCTV lens.

A couple of us bought the IR lens on ebay.

Sidenote: You still need a special IR pass filter to put on this lens to prevent visible light from being detected.

In general cameras with CCD sensors should perform better than those with a CMOS chip.

Firewire has some benefits over normal USB webcams:
higher framerate, capture size, higher bandwidth, lesss overhead for the driver (due to less compression)

See this list for an overview of the different camera’s the people are using inside this community.

Possible Cameras

Low End Webcams:
Sweex WC001 Low framerate & resolution, manages but only for playing interactions.
High End Webcams:
Philips SPC900NC
Unibrain Fire-i
Used Philips Vesta Pro (PCVC680K) - 30fps at VGA resolution, extremely easy to remove the IR filter, great results. No official Vista drivers - Windows 2003 included ones work well (here). Linux support - status unknown, drivers available. New linux driver support for philips cams here

Professional/Industrial Cameras:
The Imaging Source (untested)
Unibrain Fire-i Industrial Cameras (untested)

DV Cameras:

Lens Retailers

MOTechnology (ebay)
Optics Online

[Category:Hardware]