Fire Wire Camera - System Integration

System Integration

Often FireWire cameras are only a cog in a bigger system. Typically, a system specialist uses a number of different components to solve a particular problem. There are two basic approaches to do this:

1. The problem at hand is interesting enough for a group of users. The typical indicator of this situation is the off-the-shelf availability of application software. Studio photography is an example.
2. The problem at hand is only of interest to a particular application. In such cases, there is typically no application software available off-the-shelf. Therefore, it has to be written by a system specialist. The gauging of a steel plate is an example.

Many aspects of system integration are not directly related to FireWire cameras. For example, illumination has a very strong influence on the quality of the acquired images. This holds true for both aesthetic and analytical applications.

However, in the context of the realization of application software, there is a special feature, which is typical for FireWire cameras. It is the availability of standardized protocols, such as AV/C, DCAM, IIDC and SBP-2 (please cf. Structure / Interface and Exchanging data with computers). Using these protocols, the software is written independently from any particular camera and manufacturer.

By leaving the realization of the protocol to the operating system, and by enabling access to a set of APIs, software can be developed independently from hardware. If, for instance, under Linux a piece of application software uses the API libdc1394 (please cf. Exchanging data with computers), it can access all FireWire cameras that use the protocol DCAM (IIDC). Using the API unicap additionally permits access to other video sources, such as frame grabbers.