Simple USB webcam

[Jay_Aitchess]

Hi,

I have been chasing my tail on this for days.

I just want to be able to grab and image onto a front panel from a USB webcam. I am using LV2009 but also have access to 2011 in Win7.

I am relatively new to 2009/11 having been forced to upgrade from 5.5 (where I spent most of my time years ago) to 8.5. I appreciate the whole thing is much more powerful, however...

Why is this so bloated and confusing? In addtion to LabView I now have Ni Vision Assitant, NI Vision Builder, Vision Aquisition Software, IMAQ, IMAQdx, IMAQ for USB Upgrade.

I have followed all the obvious posts but never get the control/function palettes they show.

Does anyone have a kindergarten guide explaining what extras are needed, how they should be installed, how to check they are installed properly and some sample code?

Apoligies if my tone is a little exaspirated. I am struggling with the fact it took me 5 minutes to to do the same in VS - I am sure it is not as difficult as I am making it and my ignorance is showing!

Regards,

JHS

[ChristopheC]

Hi,

You can verify that the software is installed properly using Add/Remove Programs (or Programs adn Features) from the control panel, double clicking on National Instruments Software and verifying that NI-IMAQdx and NI Vision are installed.

You can also view the list of installed NI programs by launching Measurements and Automation Explorer and selectin Software in the left tab.

To acquire from a USB webcam, you will need IMAQdx, assuming the webcam has a directshow driver.

To display the Vision palette in LabVIEW, right click on the diagram to display the palette, pin it, then click on the Customize button and select Change Visible Palettes. Make sure the Vision and Motion one is selected.

The Vision VIs will then appear under Vision and Motion.

The fatest way to get an image is to use the Acquisition Express VI, located in the Vision Express Subpalette.

You can also look at the IMAQdx examples located in the <LabVIEW>\examples\IMAQ\IMAQdx Examples.llb and <LabVIEW>\examples\IMAQ\IMAQdx Express Examples.llb llbs.

Hope this helps.

Christophe

[CarlosOtiniano]

hi, if you still do not solve the problem check out this link Docs and a possible solution

http://forums.ni.com/t5/Discusiones-sobre-Productos-NI/FPS-de-webcam/m-p/2391132#M22723

[A.Rohde]

Hi Jay

The most occuring reason for not being able to see the control palette for the IMAQdx drivers in LabVIEW is because there is a version mismatch between LabVIEW and the NI-IMAQdx driver.

You will need to upgrade the vision driver together with the LabVIEW version to make them work together but since you are "only" using LabVIEW 8 you need to be sure not to use the latest version either.

In this article you can see a compatibility list of LabVIEW and the vision drivers:

NI-IMAQ, NI-IMAQdx, NI-IMAQ I/O, and VAS Compatibility with Different LabVIEW Versions

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/6B55FF09D1FBD3108625719600650B7C

Best Regards

Anders Rohde

Applications Engineer

National Instruments Denmark

[CarlosOtiniano]

Example using a webcam and the module NI Labview IMAQdx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJCxJLuAhTs

[CarlosOtiniano]

if your goal is to work with you ltener vision in mind the following, NI Vision Module is designed to help develop and deploy machine vision applications . Includes hundreds of functions to acquire, process images , location of features, identify objects and measure parts.
 

The Vision Development Module ( VDM ) presents image processing functions for LabVIEW , C / C , Visual Basic, and . NET . VDM functions are used for image processing some of them are : pattern matching, particle analysis , edge detection , threshold , histograms and optical character recognition . Furthermore, VDM includes Vision Assistant and code generation tool similar to VBAI . Vision Assistant is a useful tool to develop and test a series of image processing steps and code generation .
 
Vision Builder for Automated Inspection ( VBAI ) is a standalone development environment that requires no programming . VBAI includes over 100 of the most used VDM tools , including : pattern matching , OCR , and particle analysis . VBAI can run programs on remote destinations , and also has the ability to configure the remote targets .
 
Vision Acquisition Software ( VAS ) is a set of drivers and utilities functions to acquire, display and save images from any camera NI GigE Vision camera , or IEEE 1394 (Firewire ) and USB . VAS is included in both VDM and VBAI .
 
You can perform image acquisition only drivers from VAS , but for any treatment or handling or VDM VBAI you need , plus VAS . You can download the evaluation software from the following links :

• Módulo NI Vision Development https://lumen.ni.com/nicif/us/evalvisiondevmodule/content.xhtml
• NI Vision Builder para Inspección Automatizada (AI) https://lumen.ni.com/nicif/us/machinevisionbrochure/content.xhtml
• NI Vision Acquisition Software http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/3818/lang/en