Raspberry Pi - developing an app for photography

Digital cameras, notably DSLR cameras, have the ability to be remotely controlled by a tethered device. However, existing solution to do so does not come cheap and the lack of camera communication specification by the manufacturers hindered development in this area. With the release of the Raspberry Pi, it is now feasible to develop a portable and cost-effective solution to control the DSLR camera. The project aims to develop a web application, which will be housed within the Raspberry Pi, for tethered photography. The main focus will be to provide a hassle-free solution to access the DSLR camera’s primary functions, including releasing of shutter and viewing of live view. gPhoto2, a set of free digital camera software applications, was used extensively to communicate with the DSLR camera. To provide accessibility to the DSLR camera via Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi had to be configured to be a web server, as well as a wireless access point with the help of an USB Wi-Fi adapter. The user interaction with the DSLR camera was made possible by a combination of AJAX call to PHP scripts which would invoke gPhoto2’s operation. By the end of the project, a workable web application, capable of running on most modern web browser to control a camera, was produced. Features of the application include ability to manipulate basic settings, release shutter, switch to live view mode, and playback mode. Future work can be done to exploit the more advanced functions of modern cameras that are not assessable from gPhoto2 and improve the overall efficiency of the application.Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science