Acquire image from CCD camera without grabber card

Development platform: Windows 7 32 bit, DotNet framework 4, C#
LEADTools SDK Version: 17.5 Main and 17.5 Multimedia SDK

Current implementation:
My application connects to video grabber card using Multimedia SDK and captures 30 frames per second. It then averages them and display the averaged output to user using Main SDK.
Source to video grabber card is CCD camera.

Problem:
We tested the image output in the application developed by grabber card manufacturer bypassing LEADTools SDK. We observed that output from video grabber is not meeting our image quality expectations. We are planning to bypass grabber card and directly receive output (images, 30 frames per second) from CCD camera.

Question:
Is there any way to capture images at the rate of 30 frames per second directly from CCD camera (bypassing video grabber card in-between) using LEAD Tools SDK versions mentioned above? If yes, please provide some inputs.

Hi,

The LEADTOOLS Multimeda SDK contains multiple Multimedia controls that can be used to capture audio/video from multiple devices:

PlayCtrl:
Plays audio/video from sources including disk files, URL or UDP addresses.

https://www.leadtools.co...playctrl~sourcefile.html

CaptureCtrl:
Captures audio/video from devices physically connected to the machine (The devices will need to support either DirectShow or Media Foundation to function with LEADTOOLS). This control allows you to save to captured audio/video to multiple different formats.

https://www.leadtools.co...turectrl~targetfile.html

ConvertCtrl:
Captures audio/video from sources including disk files, URL or UDP addresses like the PlayCtrl does but the ConvertCtrl will allow you to convert that input audio/video into other formats including disk files, URL or UDP addresses (including RTSP).

https://www.leadtools.co...vertctrl~sourcefile.html
https://www.leadtools.co...vertctrl~targetfile.html

All of these controls have the ability to use any of our DirectShow filters to manipulate/compress the video data in many different ways:
https://www.leadtools.co...v175/multimedia/filters/

Unfortunately, I am not 100% familiar with the CCD cameras but it sounds like you don't need to save the audio/video stream back out so I would recommend using the PlayCtrl or CaptureCtrl for your needs depending on if the device is connected to the machine or if you are connecting to it over the network. We ship demos with the source code for multiple programming languages with the SDK that demonstrate how you can use both controls:

<Install Directory>\LEADTOOLS Multimedia 17.5\Shortcuts\Multimedia\Capture
<Install Directory>\LEADTOOLS Multimedia 17.5\Shortcuts\Multimedia\Playback

Once you have the controls capturing your audio/video properly, then you can attach the LEAD Video Callback Filter to the control:
https://www.leadtools.co.../leadvideocallbackfilter(2.0).htm

The LEAD Video Callback Filter will provide you with the data for every frame of the video that passes through the control. In the callback that is fired you can take that frame data and save it to any image format that wish. You could also use the LEADTOOLS Imaging SDK to save the image data to any of the 150+ image formats that LEADTOOLS supports.

Here is a link to a couple "HOW TO" posts that will demonstrate how you can use the LEAD Video Callback Filter to capture image directly from a device or other video stream:

https://www.leadtools.co...llback-Filter-for-Stills
https://www.leadtools.co...rocess-Frames-using-LTMM

We also ship demos containing the source code in multiple programming languages demonstrating how to use the LEAD Video Callback Filter:

<Install Directory>\LEADTOOLS Multimedia 17.5\Examples\Ltmm\Cpp\Callback
<Install Directory>\LEADTOOLS Multimedia 17.5\Examples\Ltmm\Dotnet\CS\Callback
<Install Directory>\LEADTOOLS Multimedia 17.5\Examples\Ltmm\Dotnet\VB\Callback

The number of images you can save in a second is going to depend on your hardware itself, but you should be able to achieve the speed you are looking for. The callback filter itself is going to capture the image data at the rate that the audio/video is coming through the control. The functionality that is going to slow down the processing is going to be how you save the images within the callback filter, so you may want to look into making that step as efficient as possible to achieve your goal of 30 still images saved per second.

If you have any questions please let us know.