How to interface ip camera from Android mobile with ni Max..it is showing there but not connecting

[Ramprakash0111]

I want to interface the IP camera app from my Android mobile to ni max and use it in my daqmx program by using vision acquision .. the mjpeg camera is showing up in the just max ..bus the camera is not connecting ..it is just showing up like ..connecting to camera ..is there any alternatives for you IP camera adapter..or suggest any solutions..thank u

[Bob_Schor]

I have experience interfacing IP Cameras from Basler and Axis with NI Vision (using IMAQdx).  According to "Cameras supported by National Instruments", the only IP Cameras that are supported are those that support AIA GigE Vision Specification, which includes (and might be limited to) cameras from Basler and Axis.  I've successfully used cameras from both of these manufacturers with IMAQdx.

If your Camera does not meet these specifications, it is unlikely that NI Vision Drivers will be able to see it.  In particular, I would not expect that an Android App would work.

As it happens, I'm currently working with a FLIR USB3 Camera which comes with its own Driver.  With the FLIR Software, I can run their Camera Support app (in Windows), configure the Camera, take stills and videos, save to disk, etc.  If I open MAX, it will "see" (and identify) the Camera, but will not let me manipulate it, even to inquire about its parameters.  Why?  Because it is using the Vendor-supplied Driver.  If I tell MAX to install the IMAQdx Driver instead, now MAX can see the Camera, can 

 Snap and Grab, and I should be all set (except that the Camera does not yet operate in the mode I need it to follow -- I'm working on that).  And, if I go back to the Vendor's Configuration Software, it can no longer see the Camera, again because its proprietary Driver is not installed.  

Bob Schor

[rolfk]

IP Camera means little more than that the camera has a network interface that can be connected through by a TCP/IP (and sometimes UDP) connection. It says absolutely nothing about the actual protocol used to control the camera, and with that the TCP/IP or UDP port to use, and also not very unimportant, what streaming protocol to use for the actual image data. Usually it has also some sort of web server over which you can connect to the camera through a browser, but that is not an interface you want to use for image acquisition, as it is usually a still image interface that the browser keeps requesting a new image over and over again.

As such there is no simple and uniform way to have IMAQdx access "IP Cameras". As Bob Schor explained, if you have cameras from Basler and Axis, and I have experience with Allied Vision GigE cameras, it will usually work (with sometimes a little tweaking and nudging). Not surprisingly non of those cameras are cheap 20 $ items. 

IMAQdx has, under Windows at least, however also the ability to see Windows camera devices if they have a proper Direct Show driver. This is how IMAQdx can see your built in webcam in your labtop or any USB webcam that you connect to your computer that does come with a real Direct Show driver rather than a proprietary one.

There are Direct Show filter drivers that you can install under Windows which rather than being for a directly connected camera, can connect to a network camera. There used to be some freeware ones many years ago, but support was naturally non existent for them and success was random at best.

Most such drivers you can find nowadays are part of a paid software package. 

A notably still free one is here. It even comes with a tutorial at the end that explains how to use it with Android. If it works for you that is great, if it doesn't I don't think the author is still looking at that web page, judging from the reactions there.