Select Your Device and Configure Format in Image Acquisition Explorer

Select Device

When you open the Image Acquisition Explorer app, you can select an image acquisition device that is currently connected to your computer. Each device card has the name of the device, name of the adaptor it is using, and the device ID for the adaptor.

If you do not see your device listed here, make sure that you have the appropriate Image Acquisition Toolbox™ support package installed for your device by clicking the Don't see your device? link. For a list of supported hardware and their respective support packages, see Image Acquisition Toolbox Supported Hardware. Check that it is physically plugged in to your computer. You can also try clicking the refresh button next to All Hardware.

Add New Hardware

When you open the Image Acquisition Explorer, the app automatically shows the image acquisition devices supported by the toolbox that are currently connected to your computer. If you plug a new device in while the Image Acquisition Explorer is open, click the refresh button next to All Hardware to display the new device.

View Device List

After you select a device, the main app space opens. The Device List panel shows your selected device as well as the other devices you can connect to from the Image Acquisition Explorer app. You can refresh the list of devices and switch to another device at any time. However, doing so will discard your current device configuration.

Configure Device Format

Use the parameters in the Configure Format section of the Image Acquisition Explorer app toolstrip to define the Video Format and Color Space. The available values for both of these parameters depend on the selected device. The video format defines different resolutions and color spaces that your device supports, or different video standards or camera configurations for your device.

Video Format

Use this parameter to set the video format used by the device to capture images and video. The list of values for this parameter depends on the video formats supported by your device. The format selected when you open the app is the device's default format.

Color Space

Use this parameter to set the color space for the selected video format. Possible values for Color Space are grayscale, rgb, YCbCr, and bayer, but the list of values that you see depends on the Video Format you selected. Your device format's default color space is shown as the default.

If you select grayscale for the Color Space, you can set the Colormap and Color Limits parameters for the preview.

• Color Limit — Toggle this switch to Manual to set the minimum and maximum values on the specified colormap. The default values are 0 and 255. All values in the preview that are less than or equal to the minimum value map to the lowest value of the colormap. All values in the preview that are greater than or equal to the maximum value map to the highest value of the colormap.

• Colormap — Colormap applied to the preview. For a full list of options, see map.

Sensor Alignment

If your device supports Bayer sensor alignment and you select bayer for the Color Space, you can set the Sensor Alignment. Select the 2-by-2 pixel Bayer color filter array pattern of the Bayer color filter array, as gbrg, grbg, bggr, or rggb. The specified pattern is used to convert the Bayer pattern image to RGB.

Use Camera File

If your device supports the use of a camera file, also known as a device configuration file, you can select it in the Image Acquisition Explorer. For example, some frame grabbers support these files. The camera file is provided by the device manufacturer. See your device documentation for more information.

After you select your device, there is a Select Camera File button in the Configure Format section of the app toolstrip if the device supports the use of camera files.

To use a camera file:

1. In the Configure Format section of the app toolstrip, click Select Camera File to open a file browser window.

2. In the file browser window, navigate to the file location and click on it. Then click Open.

   The Camera File name appears in the toolstrip. You can hover your cursor over it to see the full file path. You can then set the Color Space, specify device properties, preview, and acquire data.

Note

The app ignores hardware trigger configurations included in a camera file. To configure hardware triggering, select the Hardware Trigger option in the Record section of the app toolstrip.