OpenCV: How to capture frames from an Ethernet camera

Question

I have earlier programmed USB webcam, where the sole aim is to get the live frames from the camera and display in a window. I used cvCaptureFromCAM for that purpose, which worked fine for USB Camera(see code below). I want to know how do I capture frames from a Gigabit Ethernet camera? I guess I need to capture frames from some default IP address using some API. Can some one point me to right direction? I will be using C++ with OpenCV on Windows 7 on an Intel i3 processor. ``` #include "cv.h" #include "highgui.h" #include <stdio.h> // A Simple Camera Capture Framework int main() { CvCapture* capture = cvCaptureFromCAM( CV_CAP_ANY ); if ( !capture ) { fprintf( stderr, "ERROR: capture is NULL 
" ); getchar(); return -1; } // Create a window in which the captured images will be presented cvNamedWindow( "mywindow", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE ); // Show the image captured from the camera in the window and repeat while ( 1 ) { // Get one frame IplImage* frame = cvQueryFrame( capture ); if ( !frame…

Accepted Answer

You can do this with genIcam API. genIcam is a generic interface for cameras (USB, GigE, CameraLink, etc.). It consists of multiple modules but we'll focus on GenTL (transport layer). You can read more on GenTL documentation HERE. I recommend using either the Basler API or the Baumer API, which are GenTL consumers (producers and consumers are described in the GenTL docs). I used the Baumer API, but both should work. NOTE: I'm using a Baumer HXG20 mono. THINGS TO DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL - Visual Studios Community eddition (I used 2015 LINK) - Baumer GAPI SDK, LINK - openCV (here is a youtube tutorial to build openCV 3 for c++) HERE TEST CAMERA WITH CAMERA EXPLORER It's good to verify your network interface card (NIC) and camera are working and play around in the Camera Explorer program. You may need to enable Jumbo Packets on your NIC. You can configure the camera IP using the IPconfig program as well (either DHCP or static IP). SETUP VISUAL STUDIOS Setting up your environment variables and configuring Visual studios is described in the Baumer GAPI SDK programmers guide (chapter 4), located in the following directory `C:\Program Files\Baumer\Baumer GAPI SDK\Docs\Programmers_Guide` Check that you have the following system variable (if using 64 bit version), or create the variable if needed (refer to section 4.3.1 in the programmer's guide). name = `GENICAM_GENTL64_PATH` value = `C:\Program Files\Baumer\Baumer GAPI SDK\Components\Bin\x64\` In visual Studios, create a new C++ project and update the following properties (refer to section 4.4.1 in the programmer's guide). C/C++ > General > Additional Include Directories = `C:\Program Files\Baumer\Baumer GAPI SDK\Components\Dev\C++\Inc` Linker > General > Additional Library Directories = `C:\Program Files\Baumer\Baumer GAPI SDK\Components\Dev\C++\Lib\x64` Linker > Input > Additional Dependencies = `bgapi2_genicam.lib` Build Events > Post-Build Event > Command Line = `copy "C:\Program Files\Baumer\Baumer GAPI SDK\Components\Bin\x64"\*.* .\` CREATE A .CPP FILE TO DISPLAY IMAGE STREAM IN AN OPENCV WINDOW The simplest way to get started is to use one of the example codes provided in the Baumer GAPI SDK and modify it to add the openCV functionality. The example code to use is 005_PixelTransformation, which is located here `C:\Program Files\Baumer\Baumer GAPI SDK\Components\Examples\C++\src\0_Common\005_PixelTransformation` Copy and paste this .cpp file into your project source directory and make sure you can build and compile. It should capture 8 images and print out the first 6 pixel values from the first 6 lines for each image. Add these `#include` statements to the .cpp source file: ``` #include #include #include ``` Add these variable declarations at the beginning of the `main()` function ``` // OPENCV VARIABLE DECLARATIONS cv::VideoWriter cvVideoCreator; // Create OpenCV video creator cv::Mat openCvImage; // create an OpenCV image cv::String videoFileName = "openCvVideo.avi"; // Define video filename cv::Size frameSize = cv::Size(2048, 1088); // Define video frame size (frame width x height) cvVideoCreator.open(videoFileName, CV_FOURCC('D', 'I', 'V', 'X'), 20, frameSize, true); // set the codec type and frame rate ``` In the original 005_PixelTransformation.cpp file, line 569 has a `for` loop that loops over 8 images, which says `for(int i = 0; i < 8; i++)`. We want to change this to run continuously. I did this by changing it to a `while` loop that says ``` while (pDataStream->GetIsGrabbing()) ``` Within our new `while` loop, there's an `if` statement that checks if the Pixel format is 'Mono' (greyscale) or color. In the original file, it starts at line 619 and ends at 692. Directly after the `if` and `else` statement braces are closed, and before the `pImage->Release();` statement, we need to add the openCV portion to display the images to a window. Add the following lines of code ``` } // This is the closing brace for the 'else color' statement // OPEN CV STUFF openCvImage = cv::Mat(pTransformImage->GetHeight(), pTransformImage->GetWidth(), CV_8U, (int *)pTransformImage->GetBuffer()); // create OpenCV window ---- cv::namedWindow("OpenCV window: Cam", CV_WINDOW_NORMAL); //display the current image in the window ---- cv::imshow("OpenCV window : Cam", openCvImage); cv::waitKey(1); ``` One thing to note is the pixel format in the `openCvImage` object. My camera is a mono 8 bit, so I need to specify `CV_8U`. If your camera is RGB or 10-bit pixels, you need to provide the correct format (see the openCV documentation HERE). you can refer to the other examples for adjusting camera parameters. now once you build and compile, you should have an openCV window open that displays the camera images! THUMPS UP!!!!

OpenCV: How to capture frames from an Ethernet camera

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