Configuring a Video Capture Device

Table of Contents

• Open a Device
• Configure the Resolution
• Define ROI Origin
• Set an Exposure Time

This section contains a small example program showing how to configure a video capture device through the ic4::PropertyMap interface.

The article Accessing Device Properties explains the capabilities of the property classes in detail.

Open a Device

For demonstration purposes, we open the first available video capture device:

// Create a grabber object
ic4::Grabber grabber;
 
// Open the first available video capture device
auto info = ic4::DeviceEnum::enumDevices().front();
grabber.deviceOpen(info);

Configure the Resolution

Next, we configure the device to output Mono8 data with a ROI of 640x480:

// Configure the device to output images in the Mono8 pixel format
grabber.devicePropertyMap().setValue(ic4::PropId::PixelFormat, ic4::PixelFormat::Mono8);
 
// Set the resolution to 640x480
grabber.devicePropertyMap().setValue(ic4::PropId::Width, 640);
grabber.devicePropertyMap().setValue(ic4::PropId::Height, 480);

Define ROI Origin

Then, the origin of the ROI is moved to the top left corner of the sensor:

// Set the origin of the ROI to the top-left corner of the sensor
grabber.devicePropertyMap().setValue(ic4::PropId::OffsetAutoCenter, "Off");
grabber.devicePropertyMap().setValue(ic4::PropId::OffsetX, 0);
grabber.devicePropertyMap().setValue(ic4::PropId::OffsetY, 0);

Set an Exposure Time

Finally, we configure the device to a fixed exposure time of 5ms and enable automatic gain control:

// Configure the exposure time to 5ms (5000µs)
grabber.devicePropertyMap().setValue(ic4::PropId::ExposureAuto, "Off");
grabber.devicePropertyMap().setValue(ic4::PropId::ExposureTime, 5000.0);
 
// Enable GainAuto
grabber.devicePropertyMap().setValue(ic4::PropId::GainAuto, "Continuous");