How do I access imaqdx's Bayer Filter algorithm?

[Lost And Found]

I have a Bumblebee2 Stereo Camera from PointGrey Research Inc. This camera must be used in Format_7 Mode 3 to obtain both stereo images at the same time. The resulting image has 640x480 16-bit values, where the first 8 bits comes from one image and the last 8 bits from the other. The camera is connected to a CVS unit via Firewire, limiting me to IMAQdx VIs

If I use the IMAQdx Get Image VI, it outputs an RGB image from Bayer demosaicing, but due to the demosaicing the additional bits of the 16-bit image have been lost.

If I use the IMAQdx Get Image Data VI (to get the raw data) it outputs the 16-bit values which I can easily split to 2 640x480 8-bit arrays. However, there doesn't seem to be an equivalent to the IMAQ Bayer Color Decode VI in IMAQdx. Obviously, Bayer demosaicing IS available, since IMAQdx Get Image makes use of it, but it doesn't seem that I'm able to access it for the usage I envision (input the 'grayscale' image and the Bayer pattern and output the RGB image). Any help?

[BullDozier]

Hey,

Have you looked at 'IMAQ  Bayer Color Decode.vi'?  It allows you to pass it a grayscale image (encoded with bayer data) and specify the bayer pattern desired and it returns an RGB image derived from the decoded bayer information. It's not a function of IMAQdx, but it should do the trick

Good Luck,

[Lost And Found]

Hi BullDozier, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, as mentioned in my OP, I'm deploying my VI on a CVS, and as such cannot use any IMAQ VIs, only IMAQdx. imaq.dll is not installed on my CVS, and there doesn't seem, based on my research on these forums and the kb articles, that it is possible, since the CVS is seen as a 'firewire-only' unit, hence not needing any IMAQ VIs.

[BullDozier · Accepted solution]

Hey,

I've written a couple of VI's that behave like the IMAQ Bayer Decode and IMAQ Create Bayer LUT, but don't require IMAQ.  Try these out and let me know if that works for you.  It should do the trick

Take Care,

[Lost And Found]

Thanks BullDozier! Its close to midnight Friday here, so I'll check this out on Monday and come back to this thread.

[Lost And Found]

Thanks, this works just fine. Marking solved.

[CSD]

Is there a reason you password protected these VI's?  I would have liked to check out the internals.  Thanks for posting them, and I would like to see them included in the default distribution of IMAQdx if possible.

Also, you don't mention the LabVIEW version these are made with, although I was able to open them in LabVIEW 8.2, for what it is worth.

Thanks,

Chris Davis

[Lost And Found]

I agree with CSD concerning the distribution of these VIs with IMAQdx. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will be wanting to the CVS with a colour camera and have access to the raw data.

[BrandonGT]

Lost and Found,

I am trying to do the same as you, however when I use the IMAQdx Get Image Data it is outputting an 8 bit array not a 16 bit array. Would you be able to explain your solution a little better or perhaps post an example? Thank you very much!

Brandon

[Lost And Found]

Hi BrandonGT. In the end I used IMAQdx Get Image Data and decimated the 1D Array that it produced, converting those into images using IMAQ ArrayToImage (you'll need to resize the 1D array to 640x480), then used the VI uploaded here to convert to colour.