Is it possible to use a Linksys By Cisco Wireless-G Internet Home Monitoring Camera with Labview

[Jam.hall]

I was wondering if it is possible to use a 'Linksys By Cisco Wireless-G Internet Home Monitoring Camera' with Labview

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=53PX&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=network+cameras&PageMod...

I wan't to be able to get the raw data from the camera and analyse it.

Message Edited by Jam.hall on 03-25-2009 09:03 AM

[SheelaS]

Hi Jam.Hall

I am somewhat hesitant to say you will be able to use this camera with LabVIEW.  It all depends on what functionality you are wanting to utilise on the camera, and how much video you want to analyze.

 - If you want to use the wireless functionality, I am concered that the on board web server will compress and embed the video stream.  I do not beleive this is something we can access in LabVIEW.

 - If you wish to use the ethernet connection, if it is Gigabit Ethernet, then you should be able to use our IMAQ for GigE driver to bring in the feed, but looking at the specs for the camera, I'm not sure that this is an option.

 - My other suggestion might be to utilise the record video stream function that the camera has.  Depending on the format of the video file, you may be able to read in the recorded file and analyse it in LabVIEW.

If you could explain the purpose of your application, and what you would like to achieve with the system, there may be more suitable products that you can use.

Kind regards,

[Jam.hall]

Hi Sheela,

Thanks for your reply. We want to be able to use the camera for colour reconition, and possibly shape reconition as well (maybe both). I know it is possible to access web pages in labview, but would it be possible to 'strip' out the video stream that we need?

The ethernet is a nice idea but we need to keep the camera wireless.

Again the video record idea is a nice idea, but would this mean that the camera would have to create a file then read it back into labview? The problem with that is that we need a live feed to be displayed at the same time.

Thank you for your help

From James Hall

[Jam.hall · Accepted solution]

I found a simple soloution to this problem,

Its possible to use an invoke node of the web browsers to basically give a print screen of the web page (get image)

This can then be loaded into a picture display and display exactly what the web browser is showing, and can also be analised by unflattening the pixmap.

This may not be the most efficent method but it runs pretty fast of my rig and does the job

It may also be worth setting the picture display to 'smooth updates' this gets rid of the white flashes as the image changes, if anyone else is having this trouble.