Capture Image from Webcam without Vision Acquisition Toolkit

[ainnrc]

Hi!
I need to capture an image from a webcam. I just need labview to take image, no other processing needed. Is there a way to implement it without having the vision toolkit? or maybe a cheaper approach to do so?
I have found think thread , but it was more than ten years ago and the code isn't working now.
Thank you!

[UA-hs]

The free NI-IMAQdx drivers allow you to connect to USB2 and USB3 cameras:

The NI-IMAQdx driver software is needed to use third-party image acquisition devices which use the following buses and standards: 

• Gigabit Ethernet Cameras Supporting GigE Vision

• FireWire IEEE 1394 Cameras

• USB 2.0 Cameras Supporting Microsoft DirectShow

• USB 3.0 Cameras Supporting USB3 Vision

Latest version of IMAQdx is included with this download (I think): http://www.ni.com/download/ni-vision-acquisition-software-18.0/7552/en/

[Tom_Hawkins]

I don't think IMAQdx is free if you're not using NI cameras or real-time hardware:

https://www.ni.com/en-gb/support/documentation/supplemental/18/licensing-national-instruments-vision...

[p27]

Sorry to say I couldn't find an option last time I looked- Im interested in this as well...  I thought it might be worth looking into whether or not there were .NET resources that could be used in labview but it looks like all the examples I could find used UWP and WinRT APIs that arent supported by LabVIEW (I dont think anyway).

[Tom_Hawkins]

There's this, but it's not clear from the discussion whether it still works under the latest Windows builds.

[rolfk]

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@UA-hs wrote: Latest version of IMAQdx is included with this download (I think): http://www.ni.com/download/ni-vision-acquisition-software-18.0/7552/en/

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The NI Vision Acquisition Software is definitely NOT free. It comes included with an NI Smart Camera and NI image acquisition boards, which most are either legacy or not deliverable anymore, but otherwise you have to pay for it.

This is what you need to purchase if you want to use NI-IMAQdx for non-NI hardware of any kind. And yes that license is checked at startup of your application that uses the NI-IMAQdx driver so it's not just a cosmetic requirement for those who do want to stay legal, but also a technical requirement.