capturing data from usb webcam

[Strokes]

I'm interested in the acquisition of footage from a usb webcam into labVIEW. I have the professional development system and downloaded NI-IMAQ which I believe i'll need from reading online material.

I don't really know where to start to link the camera with labview so any material would be a great help...

Final question, is it a big undertaking acquiring data from a video camera in labVIEW? it's just i've limited time to work on a project and want to know if it's worthwhile undertaking or if it will be very time heavy. I've a few months labVIEW development experience if that would give an indication to anyone...

Strokes 

[Christian Mergl]

Hi,

First your USB Cam needs to be DirectShow Compliant.

Then you will need NI-IMAQdx from the Vision Acquisition Software 2009 (supports LV 8.2 and higher) or higher to acquire images from USB cameras. The NI IMAQ driver is to capture images from framegrabbers, and the NI SmartCamera, not for USB. There is also a own IMAQ USB Library for the Vision Acquisition 8.6 but since you need to buy the Acquisition Software I would recommend to use 2009 or higher where we added the DirectShow Support to IMAQdx.

The Vision Acquisition Software is just for image acquisition and processing. If you want to do image processing you will need the Vision Development Module.

And when doing a search at ni.com you should find some articles, examples and tutorials too.

I can't estimate how much time you will need get that running, but you could just try to run one of the examples for IMAQdx in LabVIEW and then see how it works.

Christian