I have a project I'm starting to put together, a camera of sorts, and it needs a very low res photo to work with: 24x24 pixels at 4 bits/pixel, or 288 bytes.
I have been playing around with a VC0706 camera from Adafruit and it works fine for what it is, but of course doesn't give me a bitmap to work with. Processing values out of the JPEG sounds like too much for a '328 to handle, so I'm looking for other creative ways to get a low res bitmap from, this (or any) source.
The latest idea is to use the camera to capture an image, display it (as) video on a small screen, and scan the screen with a light sensor 24x24 times. That may be so Rube Goldberg, I have to try it 
Or, are there ways to read raw data from the camera? Camera controller specs are here:
What's "bitmap operation"?!
Is there a way to freeze the buffered image on the video output?
Any clues would be appreciated!