I wanted to know if anyone has used the xbox 360 vision cam and if you could please tell me if removing the IR filter is easy or hard or how to do it. Thanks

sorry I accidentally double posted when I got an error the first time. not sure how to delete posts yet…

Hello Takach, I have one of these cameras and it wasn’t too hard to modify.  I took a small plastic screwdriver to it and with a lot of persistence removed the casing. The first thing is to remove the grey focus ring and then try and seperate the white casing. It takes some time before the casing gets loose enough to come apart. See this link for some inside shots that another member has posted

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tigeba/sets/72157600725139238/

( I wouldn’t recommend using a grinder as he has ). Once the board is visible, there are 2 screws holding the board to the back housing. When you remove these screws, the board comes out and there are 2 more screws holding the black lens housing to the board. Unscrew these and you will see the glass filter attached to the black housing. I actually snapped mine off totally, and then placed in 1 to 2 small pieces of exposed negative film. Screw it back together and you’re done!! Simple!

Hope this helps.

i have 2 of these cameras and they both can detect IR quite well.  Will the removal of the filter allow more IR to be detected?

Thankyou Fairlane, I’ll give this a try as soon as mine comes in the mail

estengineer: the removal of the IR filter will always help. All webcams can’t pretty much see a decent amount of IR, but when the filter is entirley removed, IR will completely whiteout the camera.

Can I get some feedback on how well the Xbox Live Cam works for this project? Im trying to find a cheap camera that provides decent performance and would love some feedback. Thanks.

O’Malley

Liquid-core - 25 February 2008 07:27 PM

Can I get some feedback on how well the Xbox Live Cam works for this project? Im trying to find a cheap camera that provides decent performance and would love some feedback. Thanks.

O’Malley

I’ve used this camera now for both a FTIR and DI setup with excellent results. The only issue i’m having is viewing angle in a DI setup where the box is about 2 feet high and 3 feet long and 1.5 feet deep. Placing the camera to one end of the box and angling a little (not too much) is a perfect compromise. I have my setting on 320x240 @ 60fps cause my PC is the bottleneck I think. Overall I paid about AUD$50 and it does the job. Check out the videos on my YouTube in my signature for some applications tests using the Xbox Vision 360 camera.

@ Fairlane: Thank you for the response. You said you had the camera set at 320x240 @ 60 FPS due to your PC, what other settings are possible with the camera? I will not be using an amazing computer so I am curious to see what setup you have in terms of computer power.

Thank you,
O’Malley

Liquid-core - 26 February 2008 07:19 PM

@ Fairlane: Thank you for the response. You said you had the camera set at 320x240 @ 60 FPS due to your PC, what other settings are possible with the camera? I will not be using an amazing computer so I am curious to see what setup you have in terms of computer power.

Thank you,
O’Malley

I have run the camera on 640x480 @ 30fps but it’s a bit jerky for my PC.

I am running:

AMD Athalon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3600+ 2.00 GHz,
2.00GB of RAM
Nvidia GeForce 7600GT Graphics card

I think that 640x480 is the highest resolution for this camera. The box says up to 640x480 @ 30fps. It can obviously go lower resolution like 160x120, but I’d say you wouldn’t bother with that

All-in-all, it’s a good cheap camera for Multitouch

Thank you! You’ve been a big help.

O’Malley

No problem

PEOPLE!!!! i found a way to get the cameras open without breaking it!!!!

First you have to get the focus ring off cause that’s what is keeping the front face of the camera from coming off other than the clips. In order to get the gray focus ring off you have to pull on it and unscrew it away from the camera. You will feel resistance but it’s the focus ring stop scraping past each other. once it unscrews completely you will find that the focus ring assembly will not come out even though it’s flopping all over the place. Don’t worry about getting it out just yet cause when you remove the front face of the camera it will allow you to see what is stopping you from removing it and take the necessary action thereof. Once the focus ring is unscrewed completely take a flat head screwdriver and gently pry the case apart. I started at the bottom and worked my way around. You will hear a sharp snap telling you that you unsnapped it and the case will begin to open. Work your way around the case till it’s completely unsnapped and pull it apart. Now you have the 2 main pats of the camera apart, one with the focus ring and the other with the PCB board screwed to it and the base. As you can see the front face has the focus ring in it and it will not slide out due to the focus stop again. you have to tilt the focus ring so that the highest part is where the focus stop is and the lowest part is on the opposite side. Then take the focus ring and pull and twist till it’s free. The whole process seems brutal with all the twisting and pulling but I took my camera apart without any damage except for some minor aesthetic damages i did while prying the case apart.  Once you remove the IR filter then you can snap everything back together like it never happened.  I love to take things apart and have been doing so since I was a child and like I have learned from experience “if the factory can put it together, i can take it apart just like it was put together.”

Do you have some snapshots?
Does this valid only for Xbox or for all other cameras?

this is for Xbox 360 cameras ONLY.  other cameras are made differently.  I wrote that post cause the xbox 360 cameras were very hard to open and some have actually had to saw them open to remove the filter.  pictures will come soon hopefully!  I have spring break next week so i’ll get to work on my FTIR table some more and of course do homework…

estengineer - 29 February 2008 10:29 AM

PEOPLE!!!! i found a way to get the cameras open without breaking it!!!!


First you have to get the focus ring off cause that’s what is keeping the front face of the camera from coming off other than the clips. In order to get the gray focus ring off you have to pull on it and unscrew it away from the camera. You will feel resistance but it’s the focus ring stop scraping past each other. once it unscrews completely you will find that the focus ring assembly will not come out even though it’s flopping all over the place. Don’t worry about getting it out just yet cause when you remove the front face of the camera it will allow you to see what is stopping you from removing it and take the necessary action thereof. Once the focus ring is unscrewed completely take a flat head screwdriver and gently pry the case apart. I started at the bottom and worked my way around. You will hear a sharp snap telling you that you unsnapped it and the case will begin to open. Work your way around the case till it’s completely unsnapped and pull it apart. Now you have the 2 main pats of the camera apart, one with the focus ring and the other with the PCB board screwed to it and the base. As you can see the front face has the focus ring in it and it will not slide out due to the focus stop again. you have to tilt the focus ring so that the highest part is where the focus stop is and the lowest part is on the opposite side. Then take the focus ring and pull and twist till it’s free. The whole process seems brutal with all the twisting and pulling but I took my camera apart without any damage except for some minor aesthetic damages i did while prying the case apart.  Once you remove the IR filter then you can snap everything back together like it never happened.  I love to take things apart and have been doing so since I was a child and like I have learned from experience “if the factory can put it together, i can take it apart just like it was put together.”

Yeah, that’s how I got mine open… No physical damage (apart from minor screw driver dents on the edges of the plastic where I separated the 2 main camera parts. No sawing either!

I made a pdf from yours pictures and text: estengineer and Fairlane, with instructions how to modify de Xbox Live cam.