Connection to camera longer than the usb-c cable
I am interested in the Intel real sense depth cameras. I preordered the D455 model. I just realized that they are only connected via usb-c cables. These cables have a max length of 3m though and most typical 1m. If I want to use it as a security camera or even on a drone as suggested on the website, how is it supposed to transmit the data to my computer? I might be mistaken, but I think I have not seen a wifi module on the camera. Is there an easy, intended way to do this?
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Hi Pgranitzka There are a range of options for extending the range of RealSense in a stable way.
- High grade / industrial grade USB cables: cables longer than 2 meters are liable to experience performance loss or total disconnection. Using a high-quality ("industrial grade") USB cable can help to avoid this. Industrial grade cables are used in critical applications where frame losses cannot be tolerated.
- USB 'active repeater' cables: these USB cables have components built into them that refresh the strength of the signal as the data passes along the length of the camera. The recommended maximum length for these is 20 meters.
It should be noted that even if you have an active repeater cable, you should still keep the official 1 m cable safe as it is not recommended to perform firmware updates over a repeater cable.
- Fiber optic cable: a reel of fiber-optic cable can extend a RealSense camera to 100 meters.
The above three options can be supplied by a company called Newnex, who are Intel's official recommended supplier of USB cabling for the 400 Series cameras since the May 2020 edition of the camera data sheet document.
https://www.newnex.com/realsense-3d-camera-connectivity.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLQgR1jT04M
Another option for extending the camera's range is to use an ethernet network and ethernet cabling. Intel have published a paper on setting up such a system with RealSense 400 Series cameras. Ethernet can transmit data up to 100 meters, though it has a lower data transmission speed than USB.
In regard to wi-fi, a tool called Chrome Remote Desktop that can give computer-to-computer or computer-to-tablet remote control may be useful. You could run the camera off a computing device beside the camera and control that computing device over distance using Chrome Remote Desktop.
https://remotedesktop.google.com/home
There was also a case in 2019 where a RealSense user was using wi-fi with a drone setup:
https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense/issues/4392
Depth can also be streamed to a web browser. Here are a couple of example methods for doing so:
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