Display Webcam In Java

Question

I just started Java last week so I'm just getting the fundamentals down at the moment as I have a lot to learn (btw I'm using Eclipse on Ubuntu 11.04 if that helps). However I do a lot of screencasting, and I display my webcam in a lot of the videos that I do. So later on I would like to make a simple app that just displays the webcam. Not anything else.

So I'm asking this question now so not only will I remember what my goal is, but also so when I feel I'm ready, and confident to work on this I will know where to go.

I don't want any code, but a reference on where to go. I'd like to just use Java. Although one of my co workers told me to look into FMJ, and JMF. However not knowing what these are I assume their like add-ons for Java, but I'd like to just stick with Java alone if it's possible.

Additionally like I said I'm still new to Java, and am learning from thenewboston's tutorials on YouTube (Currently at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqTg2buXS5o) so if you know of any other resources to help new Java programmers like myself, and others it'd be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I have used lti-civil, which seems to work quite well for video capture.

I have used it on Windows and linux, I have not tested it on Mac but it says it works there too.

It does not need to be preinstalled, as it is a jar and a dll/so which can be downloaded with the Java application, or run via a JNLP webstart which supports native libraries.

There are no 100% pure Java libraries that can capture video, so all the options (including JMF) require a native component (.dll or .so).