I’ve never wanted to embed a tablet in my dash more than I do right now.
While browsing reddit a couple days ago, I came across this post about using a USB webcam with an OTG adapter.
Which lead me to this page about Nexus 7 webcam.
I am a huge fan of Torque OBDII reader for android (Torque Pro) with Torque Track Recorder. It kinda sucks on my original Motorola Droid so I wanted to get it working on my Nexus 7. Which got me really excited about hooking up a webcam to my nexus 7. (I currently have an iPhone 4 so that’s not an option)
So I rooted my nexus 7.
A couple Google searches later, I was reading about swapping cameras on android. This was really helpful to know to look for nvcamera.conf
which lead me to this google+ post about usb=/dev/video0 in nvcamera.conf
YAHTZEE!
Once i knew what I was modifying, I had to mount /system as rw
mount -o remount rw /system
A reboot later and I was looking at myself through a USB webcam in Torque Track Recorder
I’ll export video tonight. I wasn’t expecting to see wifi sync!
http://torque-bhp.com/wiki/Exporting_Video
/system/etc/nvcamera.conf
# format, cameraName=device,direction,orientation,type
# type can be ‘stereo’ for stereo capable, ‘mono’ for not stereo capable,
# ‘usb’ to enable searching for a usb device and where to put it in the list
# if found. Lines must be shorter then 256 characters
version=1
camera0=/dev/mi1040,front,270,mono // front camera
usb=/dev/video0
Raging Computer 
Hi, I’d love to try this myself: did you just add a line to nvcamera.conf? Does this affect the built-in front camera? Does this work with the standard cam app too? I’m asking because I must have done something wrong somewhere and ended up with the built-in front camera image upside down and the only thing that worked to get it back OK was to flash the device back to factory. Thanks.
LikeLike
Hi, i have the torque working and recording video but everytime I launch the application, it shows the front camera. I have to restart the tablet and then the webcam will show up again. Do you have this problem? also, Have you been able to figure out how to charge and use the webcam at the same time. I tried the thing where you add the 100K resistor between the otg pin and ground but it still wont do both at once.
LikeLike
After playing with this for a while, my tablet is a little less stable when doing stuff with video.
orzem: All I did was add that line to my rooted Nexus 7 and reboot. It seems to make anything adjusting camera settings crash.
Randy: I do have the same problem with the front camera. It seems restarting the tablet makes it work again. I was blaming my cheap camera and crappy OTG adapter for my troubles, but that might not be correct.
I haven’t needed to charge while recording yet so I haven’t tried.
LikeLike
Thanks for your reply. After a few trial-and-error sessions, I actually found out that if I reboot with the USB webcam attached, torque lets me see it even with no added line to nvcamera.conf. Yes, I mean the original file. I just plugin the webcam and turn on the tablet. The same goes for fast burst camera and simple webcam. Sounds great, except that the standard camera app crashes and I just can’t figure out why. I’ll keep trying and see what happens.
LikeLike
I rootad my Nexus 7 and I instaled the file simplewebcam_fork.apk with the SUser rights, but the Creative cam doesn’t work att all. I tried some other alternatives but with the same result.
LikeLike
please help me i am using galaxy note one
and i cant find the nvcamera cong file
please help
LikeLike
I forgot to link the video after uploading
BTW, this is clearly a hack. Not something you’re supposed to, etc. I’m just posting what worked for me. Your mileage may vary, etc.
LikeLike