IMAQ and Webcams

Most webcams should work with the Image Acquisition Toolbox. There are two
things to look out for.

One would be the video formats that are exposed to the toolbox. This is
normally only a problem with devices that do hardware video compression
which is normally not a problem for webcams. The problem is that these
types of devices only support video formats that the toolbox does not know
how to handles. These devices are not usable by the toolbox. Again, it
does not look like this applies to the camera listed below.

The second problem would be the way to control properties of the camera such
as brightness or contrast. There are two ways to expose these controls.
One is the "standard" approach which makes these properties available to any
program. Most webcams use this approach. The other option is for the
camera to only allow configuration through a special, custom GUI. This will
not work with the toolbox. In this case the camera is still usable with the
toolbox, it just will not be possible to adjust any of the properties
through MATLAB. It is difficult to tell if this will be the case for this
camera, the only way is to know is to test it.

Sorry to be so vague, but webcams come in such a wide variety that it is
difficult to make predictions about them.

-Dave Tarkowski

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Hi,

I would like to add to the previous post that the compatibility testing
procedure does not apply to other hardware supported by the toolbox.

#

It is only used to determine if the hardware provides a WDM (Windows Driver
Model) or VFW Video for Windows) driver.

Regards,
-Ankit

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Hello Christian,

To test your video capture device for compatibility with the toolbox,
download and run the Microsoft AMCAP utility. If you can operate your video
capture device using AMCAP without encountering any errors, the device
should work with the Image Acquisition Toolbox.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
-Ankit

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