Device Cameras
A handheld device camera from Ovo Studios is the most flexible device camera you can purchase.
Available with either a USB camera (our favorite) or an NTSC camera, both versions of our device camera deliver excellent video quality.
Dimensions for all components are customizable and the armature system and base can be designed to support devices of any shape or size. Furthermore, the flat base can be tailored to the width of the slimmest of handheld devices, or it can be enlarged for stability if you want users to rest a device on a table.
In the picture at right, a flip-phone is mounted on the cradle. Our custom armature and device-attachment mechanism give you the flexibility to mount and capture any handheld device, even challenging ones like flip phones. Other device cameras have clamps that work best with flat, rectangular devices or have camera goosenecks that aren't long enough to shoot a tilted LCD.
Our cameras are extremely high resolution, perhaps the highest on the market, with a total NTSC array density of 811 x 508 pixels.
If you have a standard Ovo Studios fixed lab running Ovo Logger, an Ovo Studios Device Camera will integrate into your usability lab architecture and will be selectable as a video source via software just like any other camera in your lab. Of course, it will not have software control of Pan/Tilt/Zoom because these cameras do not pan, tilt, or zoom.
Custom Fabrication
One of our customers needed to usability test some point-of-sale hardware in London and they needed to capture the user's face too. They needed to test in a taxi where the only place to clamp the armature was the Plexiglas divider that separates the driver from the passenger. The picture at right is a custom armature we fabricated to support two cameras for their specific use case. Feel free to let us know of any special considerations you have for you device camera when you order it. Chances are we will be able to fabricate them at no extra charge.
Are You Sure You Need a Device Camera?
As much as we would like to sell you a device camera, there are three popular alternatives to buying a device camera from Ovo Studios.
- If your lab has a ceiling camera, chances are you can monitor user
interactions with handheld devices using the ceiling camera.
- Fasten the device to an angled support and then zoom your ceiling camera in all the way. An "angled support" can be as simple as piece of 2x4 lumber that is cut to an appropriate slope; you can paint it if you want to get fancy. Velcro with an adhesive backing can be purchased at any fabric store and is a good way to fasten devices to the angled support.
- Use masking tape to mark the area on the user's desk that the
zoomed-in camera is filming. Then, instruct users to keep their hands
and the device within that area while they are working.
- Some folks are happy to put a camera on a tripod that shoots over a user's shoulder. In this setup, you could dedicate a team member to manually keeping the device in view or you could try using a remote pan/tilt/zoom camera to keep up with the user.
- You can make your own device camera. Google demonstrated a "home made" device camera at the 2009 STC conference in Boston. It was a small USB webcam fastened to one end of a piece of wire that looked like coat hanger wire. The other end of the wire was fastened to a base.
Camera Technical Specifications