Interfacing usb cameras using dlls

[Abuzar]

Hello,

I wanted to ask that how could one interface a usb camera using the dlls or .net frame work in labview environment.

I am attaching a project in which this is done for already done for a webcam, i want to use it for any other usb camera which is installed on my pc

Please guide me.

Regards

[BowenM]

Of course it is possible, provided you have the proper DLL and documentation for it.  It has been my experience however that webcams will often provide an ActiveX control at best.

Also, your attached "already done" project is a blank template that looks like someone tossed together as a training tool...

[Abuzar]

Dear BowenM

Can you please guide me more about it.

Thanks alot

[rolfk]

This is not a driver in any sense at all. It's an example application that uses the VERY OLD Video for Windows interface. VfW is a legacy technology that does mostly work even with newer DirectX supported drivers thanks to a Microsoft provided DirectX to VfW bridge but it allows virtually no control of the camera at all. Your example also partly avoids the diifficult part of retrieving the image data by going through the clipboard. A technique that will definitely not allow to capture images in a regular interval nor with much throughput either. It's ok to capture some bitmap images to store to disk but totally inadequate for realtime monitoring of the webcam images in a LabVIEW frontpanel or even worse do image analysis in any meaningful form.

If you want to quickly have some results it would be best to use the IMAQdx driver which also supports DirectX camera interfaces. IMAQdx is a licensed driver technology so won't work for free but it will give you lots of possibilities to do image processing and monitoring. If you have a normal webcam you can also use your "driver" program. But only if you use the 32 bit version of LabVIEW. For 64 bit there would have to be made several changes to the code to even allow it to work, but then I have serious doubts that Microsoft even ported Video for Windows to 64 bit. They consider it as über legacy technology for over 10 years already.