DIY camera for the Nintendo DS

We're all aware that a digital camera/webcam for the Sony PSP is right around the corner, but how many of you knew that you could also snap photos with your Nintendo DS? Don't feel bad; we didn't know it was possible either until we spotted modder Kako's handiwork on YouTube -- apparently he's taken a Treva CMOS chipset, done a bit of rewiring, and written software that allows the unit to output images directly to his DS Lite. We can't vouch for the picture quality, and the frame rates are positively sluggish, but at least this mod gives Nintendo fanboys one less missing feature to defend when the PSP crowd goes into one of those regular, tiresome diatribes listing the many reasons why their product totally "pwns" the little dual screen console -- in fact, you'll probably catch a few examples of said diatribes right here in the comments section of this very post.

[Via DS Fanboy]

[anta @ Jul 11th 2006 7:03PM]

you guys didn't mention that you can't play any games while this is on and that it runs at an amazing 1fps.

[daschupa @ Jul 11th 2006 7:13PM]

Looks a bit useless, but definitely cool that they were able to do such a thing. Though, the same could be said for the PSP camera.

Oh and here's my fanboy comment: "Now if Sony would only copy the DS and make games people actually want to play."

[Silver R. Wolfe @ Jul 11th 2006 7:18PM]

Fanboy comment retort:

"There are some! Just not as many. :D"

[daschupa @ Jul 11th 2006 7:24PM]

Silver, I would have also accepted "There are; they just dont have dancing animals and aren't only reccomended for children and the mentally disabled"

[Simon @ Jul 11th 2006 8:01PM]

With the DS phat you could say "PSP is for style, DS is for fun" ... now the DS is also for style ...

But there are lots of people who don't mind reruns after ruruns after reruns ... may it be tv shows or games ... so there is a market for the PSP ... at least in the land of the brainless ...

[Xavier @ Jul 11th 2006 8:02PM]

There are; they just dont have dancing animals and aren't only reccomended for children and the mentally disabled.

[TrueDis @ Jul 11th 2006 8:06PM]

Looks like an original sidekick camera!

[Zorque @ Jul 11th 2006 8:06PM]

yeah because all games ever made for any nintendo system are for children

I guess that's why Quake, Doom, Mortal Kombat, Eternal Darkness, the Resident Evil series, Metal Gear Solid (Twin Snakes) and many many more "adult" games have been made or remade for Nintendo systems. Shut your mouth.

[Bob Fake @ Jul 11th 2006 8:16PM]

Zorque, don't be jealous just because you picked the wrong handheld to buy.

[Tom @ Jul 11th 2006 8:20PM]

I don't know why everyone's bashing on the Nintendo.. Just because of the fact that they try and make fun games instead of cutting edge technology doesn't mean that all of a sudden it makes other portable's better than it.

People get all wrapped up in having their games looking good and forget about having fun sometimes.

My two cents.

btw: I own a PSP and a Nintendo DS and I like both of them, they're both great devices.. just for different things.

[Silver R. Wolfe @ Jul 11th 2006 8:28PM]

Oh I couldn't say that Daschupa, I like little dancing animals. :D

[tom @ Jul 11th 2006 8:36PM]

well seeing as we are doin obligatory fanboys messages... "M$ n00bs! APPLEZ IZ TEH HAXXOR!!!!1!!"
sorry, had to.

[Tom @ Jul 11th 2006 8:56PM]

I guess i'm Tom#3 ??? sup toms :D

(ps i'm not the tom who said "My two cents," or the one who said "TEH HAXXOR!!!!1!!")

[noonespillow @ Jul 11th 2006 9:41PM]

Why do you buy a game console? To play games.

Why do you buy a camera? To take photos.

Please get it straight, and stop mixing phones and cameras, and all that stuff..gosh.

[n3ldan @ Jul 11th 2006 9:47PM]

Does anyone else remember the gameboy color camera? And what a failure it was?
I had one. It was lame.

[Expresso @ Jul 11th 2006 9:48PM]

i'm high, watched it 4 times, i say fake.

Prove me wrong,

[Jamesology @ Jul 11th 2006 10:02PM]

I also own a DS and PSP, and love them both. Stop insulting something your mom won't buy you cuz your family can't afford it. Your mom still needs to feed your poor family.

These camera attachments for both are both stupid; PSP and DS alike!

Good thing DS cartridges can save games cuz that's one UGLY memory add-on

[AyAn4m1 @ Jul 11th 2006 11:41PM]

"now the DS is also for style ..."

Please tell me how a wobbly circuit board with a camera soldered to it sticking out of the back of a little tiny handheld with an equally too-large cartridge hanging out of the front qualifies as style.

[nav1 @ Jul 12th 2006 12:00AM]

Though it's a cool project to say "hey, I've added a camera for my DS" and test/prove your skills, in my opinion is pretty pointless to have a camera for either portable console.

[Plaid @ Jul 12th 2006 12:26AM]

Good grief. Ignoring all the comments in the vein of religious warfare:

There's a reason the bitrate is so slow. The camera is designed to output a raw, low-level flexible serial protocol. It outputs a single bit at a nominal 3.3v, on one edge of a clock sourced by the host device.

In this design, the clock is generated by, and the data is read by bit banging. The IOs are used as general purpose IOs, and programmed and read by the CPU, then the data is deserialized in software, and then whatever else has to be done to recover the video stream.

Bit-banging is not fast. At all. A productized version of this would likely connect to the GBA slot, and leave the DS slot available. Data rate wouldn't be a problem then.

[Jeffrey M Foster @ Jul 12th 2006 12:42AM]

it's be cool if he'd make one with 2 lenses to take stereoscopic images!

i'm still looking for the cheapest possible digital stereoscopic camera... this one seems pretty damn cheap. :)

[Jeffrey M Foster @ Jul 12th 2006 12:44AM]

oh yeah: teh PSP is soo much cooler than the stupid gameboy SD bcuz it like plays moovees and stuff that is way so cool! and like, i dont really have any fun games but they're pretty and having my PSP makes ppl think i'm all cool and fanshonable!

:P

(i dont own either, and i dont really care about fanboyisms.)

[Simon @ Jul 12th 2006 2:38AM]

AyAn4m1, great, you fell for it. That was a totaly-off-topic fanboy remark about the DS being cooler that the PSP. Though there is some truth to it, in general.

Anyway, that camera is ugly, and as already said, totaly off the point of any device but a dedicated camera. But it's a nice display of how hackable the DS is. It's a lowlevel device and as such you can do some pretty crazy things with it. GPS on it has been done some time ago. Who knows what crazy stuff people will come up with. So, pointless or not, it's a great hack.

And yeah, the PSP sucks :P

[Jamesology @ Jul 12th 2006 2:54AM]

Simon, the PSP may suck for you b/c your mommy can't afford it. Plus, the DS does not range that far in how hackable it is, it can't even power up Flash in it's stupid web-browser "cartidge add-on."

The only game in the DS that actually held my interest for more than three days is Animal Crossing:WW. The rest got boring and now there hasnt been any new good games out! >:(

Let me visit our AC town!!! I need more diff. fruits!!

[PJ @ Jul 12th 2006 5:55AM]

I own both, enjoy DS more. Games on PSP are glossy and there are a couple that would keep me going for a couple of days but games like Advance Wars have me hooked.

[Tony Rayo @ Jul 12th 2006 7:45AM]

Has anyone tried sticking their GB Camera into the GBA slot (or do GB carts not fit anymore?)... if I knew were my green one was I'd try it out =).

[Wasyl @ Jul 12th 2006 8:32AM]

It's amazing how you can poke fun at the fanboys right in the post, and then they jump out of the woodwork to prove you right.

I think both sides would be embarassed to have some of you supporting them.

[daniel @ Jul 12th 2006 8:56AM]

gb carts probably fit but the ds doesnt have a gb chipset so it wouldnt work unless you could somehow solder one in

[SausageBoy @ Jul 12th 2006 10:08AM]

Actually, GB games don't fit in the DS. Even if you'd make them fit, the original GB has a 5V voltage, while the GBA has 3.3V, so it wouldn't work.

[AyAn4m1 @ Jul 12th 2006 11:45AM]

Wasyl, the "sides" you talk about are all fanboys anyways, so it's not like you have some set of eloquent, intelligent support either way. That usually comes from the moderates (works in politics, too). Simon, I was just joking, but seriously, both consoles are equally moddable. It's just nice that you can put homebrew onto a PSP out of the box and you don't have to spend money on one of those programmable carts.

[Manapower12 @ Jul 12th 2006 11:23PM]

At various points this got down straight to "The PSP owns the DS" and "The DS owns the PSP" chat... It's supposed to be about the DIY DS camera thing... the picture of it and paragraph are supposed to be what we're talking about here. Anyways, I think that the DS camera is an odd idea, because you could just get a camera instead of buying a whole game system. It basically looks like something someone would do when they're bored, like take a picture using the DS, and perhaps edit it or something, it'd be cool to take pictures and edit them with like a paint program on the DS, and show your odd creation to your friends. [Now for the downsides!] Well... It's great like that, but seriously, you ought to use buy a camera. It'd be much easier, and you would have more options to edit or save it. [Paint, Photoshop, other programs...] [this is the part where I'll give it a rating for no reason at all, 1-10, 1=lowest 10=highest.] Overall, i'd give this... a 5.5, its useful, but you could just use an actual camera instead. Oh, and it doesn't prove anything about which portable system is better, honestly, WHY CAN'T YOU FOOLS GET OVER THE FACT THAT NEITHER IS BETTER, THEY'RE JUST GAME SYSTEMS. Now that I have that out of the way, This comment is over!

[AyAn4m1 @ Jul 13th 2006 12:24AM]

Listen, I'm all for having a smart discussion without "zomg this 1 is bettr" comments, but don't try to say that neither one is better. Our species has achieved what it has because we are able to define discrete entities. In being able to define them, we also categorize and evaluate them, which means one is always going to fall under the category of "better". Better and worse are terms that encompass all objects; everything can be evaluated as one of the two. Saying that the argument of better or worse isn't important is one thing, but saying that the basis for the argument, which is also the basis for rational thought and human existence, doesn't exist is just stupid.

And yeah, the camera is pointless. Obviously this guy had a working camera before he made the DS version, and he might as well have just stuck with what he had. A DS can do nothing with a picture that a regular camera can't, and seems like a completely spur-of-the-moment project.

[manapower12 @ Jul 27th 2006 3:58PM]

Ah. Thanks for correcting my stupid mistake.

[Aparoid @ Dec 9th 2007 10:48PM]

I can't find one of those little cameras anywhere... :(