Capture of video from standard format cameras (PAL / NTSC / RS170 / CCIR) is now established technology, and basic video capture can be achieved with relative ease. Capturing video from larger format or faster cameras, however, can require some more specialist knowledge.

Software development brief

Fast Video Capture:

The maximum required capture rate was to generate data at a rate of 50MB per second – it was unlikely that it would be possible to stream this data to disk without dropping video frames. Two capture modes were thus developed. A fast capture mode grabs video direct to host memory, saving to disk once capture was complete. This mode can capture at the full data rate, but the capture period was limited by the amount of host memory available. A second capture mode streamed data direct to disk. Although a lower frame rate is achieved, the period for which video could be captured was limited only by the available disk space.

Handling 12 bit images:

"Traditional" video systems digitise image data to 8 bits per channel – so for a monochrome system, a value of 0 represents black, and a value of 255 represents white. The camera being utilised generated 12 bit image data – i.e. images were digitised in the range 0 > 4095. This higher dynamic range produces a better image quality but requires special treatment in software.

To find out more about high-resolution imaging systems, please contact us.

Core Skills:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 6
• Matrox Imaging Library
• Image Capture & Image Processing

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