Image acquisition toolbox framerate

[Jamers Davidheiser]

I'm currently working on a project using a Pixelink firewire
camera with a programmable hardware output. I've used that
output to fire a strobe light with each frame that is
captured. All of this is done outside Matlab using the
proprietary pixelink software.

However, when performing the actual experiment, I want to
record images at a lower framerate than the camera is
capable of performing. Now, I could simply start the video
in Matlab, then grab frames as I need them and discard the
rest, BUT I am trying to preserve the life of my expensive
strobe lamp. In other words, I see no sense in having the
strobe firing at 30 frames per second when I'm only using
one image every few seconds.

I've tried using the following:

src = getselectedsource(vid)
get(src)

and have been unable to locate any settings for the camera
framerate. I do, however, know that these settings are
available, as I can set the framerate when using the
proprietary Pixelink capture software.

I do know that matlab is setting the framerate, because I
can set the framerate in the pixelink software and record
images, and when I leave the software open and switch to
matlab to capture a video, I can see the framerate being
reset in the pixelink software.

The slow and ugly hack version I have used in the past is
getsnapshot(), and not starting the video at all, but I
would greatly prefer being able to change the camera
framerate outright. Getsnapshot is both slow and seems to
cause intermittent crashes.

If it helps, I'm using winvideo adaptor.

Also, I'm going to be making very long analysis (20+ hours),
and so I won't be keeping the images after they are acquired
- I will snap an image, analyze it to get a few x,y
positions, then discard the image.

[Dave Tarkowski]

You should be using the DCAM adaptor instead of the winvideo adaptor.
It has the ability to set the frame rate of cameras that support it.

-Dave

[Jamers Davidheiser]

Dave Tarkowski <dave.ta...@mathworks.com> wrote in
message <g0he1t$8ue$1...@fred.mathworks.com>...

> You should be using the DCAM adaptor instead of the
winvideo adaptor.
> It has the ability to set the frame rate of cameras that
support it.
>
> -Dave

I tried installing the CMU DCAM adaptor. Unfortunately,
this overwrites the pixelink drivers for the camera, meaning
I can no longer enable the strobe output.

Also, even using this adaptor, there is still no setting for
framerate in Matlab under get(src)