DirectX Programming of Prosilica's IEEE-1394 cameras

For expert level programmers who are programming in Visual basic, Prosilica has a VB module that gives control through the Prosilica DLL. However, for those who want a simpler approach, use a product from A&B Software called ActiveDCAM.

ActiveDCAM is an ActiveX software solution designed to provide developers with a rapid access to FireWire (IEEE-1394) digital cameras. Just drop an ActiveDCAM control onto the surface of your application and have it immediately support multiple FireWire cameras out-of-the-box. You can even insert the control into an MS Word or PowerPoint document and have the live video embedded right into your presentation!

ActiveDCAM is an ActiveX-based universal SDK for DCAM-compliant 1394 cameras. Unlike a C/C++ or DirectShow SDK, it doesn't require an expert level programming and can be used virtually in any programming environment.

When using ActiveDCAM, you simply drop ActiveDCAM object on the surface of your application - and you have full control over multiple 1394 cameras plus the ability to display the live video right away. It literally takes minutes to develop a simple application while having very basic programming skills. The Getting Started section of the ActiveDCAM manual provides clear instructions on how to do it in several languages. To access multiple cameras, you just drag&drop a few ActiveDCAM objects on your form, configure each one for a different camera - and you get several videos running simultaneously.

ActiveDCAM provides a built-in GUI that allows for the full control over the cameras features, plus it has a lot of extra functions, like built-in Bayer interpolation, saving images in JPEG and TIFF (including storing 16-bit images), AVI recording, pseudo-coloring, scrolling and zoom. A number of ActiveDCAM functions provide an instant access to individual pixels, lines and a complete 2D array of image data. Our setup package includes sample applications with a source code written in VB, VC++, VC#, VB.NET. The latest version of ActiveDCAM includes a TWAIN driver to target not only developers, but also end-users who want to interface 1394 cameras to their favorite imaging applications.

A trial version of the ActiveDCAM software is available for download from the A&B Software site: [download].