USB Image Acquistion

[BobHamburger]

I just purchased a Logitech Quickcam for Notebooks Deluxe. The drivers from Logitech install smoothly and the camera works great. However, I cannot make this work through LabVIEW. I've tried four approaches that seem equally frustrating:

1. Downloaded NI's IMAQ for USB API. Nice, familiar VI's, but I can't get past the IMAQ USB Init.vi -- it kicks out one of those "An exception occurred within the external code..." error messages.

http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6006

2. I tried using Peter Parente's Webcam 1.4 utilities. These run, but neither produce any image nor return any errors!

http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6007

3. Tried downloading Chris Relf's Quickcam drivers, but the version that I found (on info-labview) seems too old to work. Broken arrows everywhere, and all of the ActiveX methods seem to be invalid.

4. I searched the forums here using the terms IMAQ and USB. I found lots and lots of postings, but I can't seem to read any of the thread replies! I can get to the original postings, with a tree of replies underneath. Clicking on any of the links to replies goes nowhere.

http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6008

Right now I feel like an idiot, and I don't like feeling like an idiot.

[crelf]

QUOTE(BobHamburger @ Jun 4 2007, 02:30 PM)

1. NI's IMAQ for USB API.

Hmmm - this is, by far, your best option, and I'm really surprised it's not working for you. I don't have a USB cam on hand, but I'll try it tomorrow.

QUOTE(BobHamburger @ Jun 4 2007, 02:30 PM)

2. Peter Parente's Webcam 1.4 utilities.

Old and unsupported - in fact, they were just an experiment of Pete's to begin with and were never really meant to be anything more than that - I wouldn't persue this option.

QUOTE(BobHamburger @ Jun 4 2007, 02:30 PM)

3. Chris Relf's Quickcam drivers.

Ugh! I thought I'd put those to bed a loooooong time ago These drivers are for Logitech's QuickCAM 3000 only (many years ago).

QUOTE(BobHamburger @ Jun 4 2007, 02:30 PM)

4. I can get to the original postings, with a tree of replies underneath.

I can't solve the threading problem, but click on "Options" at the top right of the threads and select "Display Modes>>Switch to: Standard" - that should inline all the posts so you can see them all at once.

QUOTE(BobHamburger @ Jun 4 2007, 02:30 PM)

Right now I feel like an idiot, and I don't like feeling like an idiot.

We've all been there

[Michael Aivaliotis]

QUOTE(BobHamburger @ Jun 3 2007, 09:30 PM)

4. I searched the forums here using the terms IMAQ and USB. I found lots and lots of postings, but I can't seem to read any of the thread replies! I can get to the original postings, with a tree of replies underneath. Clicking on any of the links to replies goes nowhere.

Click on Options>Standard

http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6009''>http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6009'>http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6009

[BobHamburger]

QUOTE(crelf @ Jun 4 2007, 12:52 AM)

Old and unsupported - in fact, they were just an experiment of Pete's to begin with and were never really meant to be anything more than that - I wouldn't persue this option.

Yeah, but what I really liked about this potential approach was that it doesn't require NI IMAQ, with its incumbent licensing issues...

[Karissap]

Here's a VI that I created for a project, it uses the NI IMAQ USB library, I've used a Logitech QuickCam IM with this and it works. I think the problem in your original implementation was the "USB Camera Name" input might not have been right, this VI selects the name from a list.

http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6012

[crelf]

QUOTE(BobHamburger @ Jun 4 2007, 03:22 PM)

Yeah, but what I really liked about this potential approach was that it doesn't require NI IMAQ, with its incumbent licensing issues...

There's also Irene He's http://www.hytekautomation.com/Products/IVision.html' target="_blank">IVision toolkit, although I haven't used it since it was first in alpha...

[Tomi Maila]

If you are using Windows you should also be able to use Microsoft DirectX library .NET interface that provides API for webcam connectivity. LabVIEW allows you to interface any .NET API using .NET nodes.

[Irene_he]

Hello,

Please try out IVision LabVIEW toolkit:

http://www.hytekautomation.com/Products/IVision.html

It contains not only video acquisition, video mixing functions, as well as image processing functions. You can ask question in IVision forum if you get any.

http://forum.hytekautomation.com

If you just want video recording, display without processing it, then you may also check out iUSBDAQ - U1208LOG, this is a USB data acquisition module with video functions, you get both fast speed USB DAQ plus video plus logger , here is the link:

http://www.hytekautomation.com/Products/IUSBDAQLog.html

should be available soon.

Irene

QUOTE(Tomi Maila @ Jun 4 2007, 07:44 AM)

If you are using Windows you should also be able to use Microsoft DirectX library .NET interface that provides API for webcam connectivity. LabVIEW allows you to interface any .NET API using .NET nodes.

Managed directX (directX for dot net) has very limited support for directshow, there are some functions in .net for supporting avi playback, I doubt it has even support for webcam at all in .net and I read somewhere that Microsoft is not going to do so for a reason that it's hard to do it in .net.

Irene

[Tomi Maila]

QUOTE(Irene_he @ Jun 4 2007, 06:45 PM)

Managed directX (directX for dot net) has very limited support for directshow, there are some functions in .net for supporting avi playback, I doubt it has even support for webcam at all in .net and I read somewhere that Microsoft is not going to do so for a reason that it's hard to do it in .net.

It's very very hard to beleave that this still applies to DirectX 10

Tomi

[Irene_he]

QUOTE(Tomi Maila @ Jun 4 2007, 12:07 PM)

It's very very hard to beleave that this still applies to DirectX 10

Tomi

Sometimes you just have to take it even it's very hard to believe.

That said, if there is really anything you want to do in dot net for webcam, you have to do it in C++.net which then is unmanaged code, then you have to wrap up for C# or VB.net to be used in managed directx...

Irene

[BobHamburger]

QUOTE(Karissap @ Jun 4 2007, 02:42 AM)

Here's a VI that I created for a project, it uses the NI IMAQ USB library, I've used a Logitech QuickCam IM with this and it works. I think the problem in your original implementation was the "USB Camera Name" input might not have been right, this VI selects the name from a list.

http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6012''>http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6012'>http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=6012

This one did the trick. Although I had run the IMAQ USB Enumerate Cameras.vi in order to get the name, I blithely just looked at the indicator and typed the name into a string constant on my diagram rather than wiring it in... thus missing the 0x00 at the end of the name (either a terminator or device 0, I'm not sure). Either way, the name was indeed wrong. I think that this little piece of code should be posted to the Code Repository; if it can prevent heartburn in one other situation it's worth it.

Everybody, thanks for the input and insight..

[crelf]

QUOTE(BobHamburger @ Jun 5 2007, 04:20 AM)

I blithely just looked at the indicator and typed the name into a string constant on my diagram rather than wiring it in... thus missing the 0x00 at the end of the name

Ahhhhh bugger! I'm glad you've got it up and running.