If you're using Windows, you can use the Vision SDK from Microsoft:
Quote:
Why use the Vision SDK?
The Vision SDK has two major features. First it provides a basic image
object that supports a diversity of pixel formats in a type safe manner.
Second, it provides a digitizer independent method for acquiring live
images. These two features allow you to develop algorithms that will be easy
to reuse on a variety of image formats on a variety of machines and by a
variety of people. It is our desire to encourage people to develop
algorithms in their area of expertise that can then be shared by other
researchers and developers.
The Vision SDK can be used to create the following types of applications:
Applications that process images stored in graphics files.
Applications that grab images to be processed from a camera. (Cameras
supporting the Microsoft Video For Windows (VFW) and DirectShow APIs are
supported, as is the Matrox Meteor video capture card. Users can also write
DLLs that will let the library work with other digitizers.)
Libraries of image-processing routines that can be used in other
applications.
http://research.microsoft.com/projects/VisSDK/
"P.D" <Phil_Dawson@dsldesigns.net> wrote in message
news:3b26e8c5$1@news.dsldesigns.com...
> I am trying to figure out how to use my USB web cam in a robotics project.
> Does anyone know of any links that may point me in the right direction?
> I want my program to be able to detect movement using the web cam.
>
> Thanks for any help you can provide.
>
>