Creating synchronized stereo videos using webcams

Question

I am using OpenCV to capture video streams from two USB webcams (Microsoft LifeCam Studio) in Ubuntu 14.04. I am using very simple VideoCapture code (source here) and am trying

Answer 1

It is not possible to stereo sync two common webcams because webcams lack external trigger feature that lets one precisely sync multiple cams using a common trigger signal. Such trigger may be done both in SW or HW but the latter will give better precision. Webcams only support "free-running" mode and let you stream whatever FPS they support but you can not influence when exactly the frame integration/exposure is done.

There are USB cameras with a dedicated external trigger feature (usually scientific cameras like Point Grey) - they are more expensive (starting at about $300/piece) than webcams but can be synced. If you really are on low budget you can try to hack the PS3 Eye camera to get the ext. trigger feature.