LabVIEW vision module w/ usb camera

[dragonlordged]

I've got LabVIEW 2009 and the Vision Assistant 8.6 and am trying to coordinate them with a usb camera for motion tracking. Eventually I want to be able to track motion at several locations on a glass plate, but currently I'm having difficulty understanding how the Vision Assistant and LabVIEW are supposed to interact. I can take input with Vision Assistant and see from the camera, but I can't perform any of Vision Assistant's functions on the image. Also, I don't think I have a LabVIEW VI for initializing up a USB camera to use with the IMAQ functions. How should I do this?

[muks]

You need to have the usb camera's drivers and vi

[dragonlordged]

muks,

The Vision Assistant can view images from the camera and the computer seems to have working camera drivers, but there seems to be no interface between the Vision Assistant and LabVIEW.

The camera I am using is a CMOS USB camera from Edmund Optics and I have downloaded what seems to be the generic USB camera driver for the Vision Assistant. What else do I need to get?

[Kristen_K.]

Hi dragonlordged,

Is there a reason you want to stick to Vision Assistant?

There are two examples on the communitythat do motion detection that might be easy just to modify.

IMAQ: Motion Detection Saved to AVI File

Motion Detection Using NI-Vision

I hope this helps

Kristen H.

[dragonlordged]

I haven't been able to find a working version of NI-Vision on the server of site-licensed stuff maintained by my school. They claim they should have it, but I haven't found it.

Also, I don't have any knowledge of how to do stuff with IMAQ. I suppose I'll look around for NI-Vision again.

dlg

[Kristen_K.]

Hi dlg,

There are some great examples in the NI Example Finder (in LabVIEW go to Help >> Find Examples...) that are simple enough to start with.  The basic concept you need to understand the HL Snap.vior HL Grab.vi examples is that you "open, do-something, close".  The more complicated your code, the more extensive the "do-something" is.  However, the same process applies.  The other thing that is important to know is that the Create IMAQ.vi creates a buffer in which to store the image temporarily from the camera.  You then pass a reference to this buffer (the purple wire at the top of the subVIs) to process the image in a later step, if desired, or display the image on the front panel.   

 I hope this helps!

Kristen H.

[guangli]

hi, Kristen H. 

It's very good about your points. Did you ever try to track one point in moving project, such as convex point in moving hand?

Do you have some ideas? THKS! 

[Kristen_K.]

Hi guangli,

I am not sure what you mean by "a convex point in a moving hand."   Would you mind clarifying.  If you are trying to track a particular object in a series of frames, I would try pattern matching VIs to create the algorithm.

I hope this helps!

Kristen H.