hasciicam(1)						      General Commands Manual						      hasciicam(1)

NAME

       hasciicam - (h)ascii for the masses!

SYNOPSIS

       hasciicam [ -hvq ] [ -m mode ] [ -d device ] [ -i input ] [ -o output ] [ -f :user%pass@host:/dir ] [ rendering-options ]

DESCRIPTION

       hasciicam  makes it possible to have live asciivideo on the web. It takes video from a capture device (like tv cards or quickcams) and ren-
       ders it into ascii, formatting the output into an html page with a refresh tag or in a live ascii window or in a simple text file as  well,
       giving the possiblity to publish on the web a live asciivideo feed browsable without any need for browser's plugins.

       hasciicam  grabs  frames  using	Video4Linux  api,  renders  them into ascii using AA-lib engine and is capable of armoring them with auto-
       refreshing HTML code. It's being used also jpeglib for optionally refresh a small jpeg image, so that it can work also as a  simple  webcam
       (or showing both, jpeg and asciivideo).

OPTIONS

       -h --help
	      Display a help text and quit.

       -v --version
	      Display version and quit.

       -q --quiet
	      Be quiet and don't show hardware detection.

       -m --mode
	      Selects the mode in wich hasciicam will run:
	      live will use the console (or eventually open one under X display) to show full speed ascii video.
	      html will write html formatted ascii video every refresh seconds into file aafile.
	      text will write plain text ascii video every refresh seconds into file aafile.
	      Default mode is live. Mode selection is XOR'ed.

       -d --device
	      Use specified capture device. Default is /dev/video.

       -i --input
	      Selects the device's input channel to be used for grabbing frames. Default is 1.

       -o --aafile
	      Defines the file where to save rendered ascii, overwrited every refresh seconds. Default is hasciicam.html when in html mode, hasci-
	      icam.txt when in text mode (useless when in live mode).

       -f --ftp
	      Ftp pushes the selected output file to an ftp account specified within an expression like :user%pass@dyne.org:/home/user/www. If the
	      password is not specified (omit %pass) hasciicam asks for it on stdin (hidden while typing). If the directory is not specified it is
	      assumed to be the first ftp directory where user logs in. Remote file is refreshed depending on refresh rate  and  connection  band-
	      width, a scolopendro temporary file is created to keep clients on the other side refreshing smooth.

       -D --daemon
	      Forks to background and runs in daemon mode.

RENDERING-OPTIONS
       -S --font-size
	      Selects a font size from 1 to 4 used in html rendering. default is 1 (only useful when in html mode).

       -a --font-face
	      Selects  a  font face to be used in html rendering, it should be fixed size for better results. default is courier (only useful when
	      in html mode).

       -r --refresh
	      Specifies the refresh interval in seconds between each grabbed frame. Default is 2 (useless when in live mode).

       -b --aabright
	      Specifies brightness level for the aa_render, from 0 to 100. Default is 60.

       -c --aacontrast
	      Specifies contrast level for the aa_render, from 0 to 100. Default is 4.

       -g --aagamma
	      Specifies gamma correction level for the aa_render, from 0 to 100. Default is 3.

       -I --invert
	      Invert and render the resulting negative ascii.

       -B --background
	      Specifies the background color to be used in the form of a hex RGB triplet (without the leading #).  Default  is	000000	for  black
	      (only useful when in html mode).

       -F --foreground
	      Specifies  the  foreground  color  to  be used in the form of a hex RGB triplet (without the leading #). Default is 00FF00 for green
	      (only useful when in html mode).

EXAMPLES

       hasciicam -m html -o watchme.html
       puts your html formatted ascii into watchme.html - then just open it with your favourite browser.
       hasciicam -m text -o ~/.plan
       puts your ascii into your local .plan (fingercam) hasciicam -m html -S 2 -o index.html -f :jaromil%sasuchen@dyne.org:korova
       generates an hascii video with font size +1 and uploads the frames in ftp passive mode on the dyne.org server, with user  jaromil  password
       sasuchen, inside the korova directory

NOTES

       When  using  a usb webcam, a supported size needs to be specified. The minimum or maximum detected size should work, also a size of 160x120
       mostly gives good results, with unsupported sizes you will get unexpected results.

BUGS

       Report bugs to hasciicam@dyne.org. Please include a complete, self-contained example that will allow the bug to be reproduced,  information
       about which version of hasciicam you are using, which operative system and the complete device detection output.

AUTHOR

       jaromil [aka Denis Roio] <jaromil@dyne.org>

COPYING

       Copyright (c) 2001-2006 Denis Roio <jaromil@dyne.org>
       Permission  is  granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this manual under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
       any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies  of  this  manual
       page provided the above copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

AVAILABILITY

       The most recent version of hasciicam sourcecode and up to date documentation is always available for download from http://ascii.dyne.org.

SEE ALSO

       info aalib

hasciicam							   July 16, 2001						      hasciicam(1)