User`s Manual
Contents
1. 3 5mm PHONE JACK 152t 12mm TION A A SER TABFLX k WIRE A WIRE B TABFLX MD 4P C1 MD A4AP C2 3 5mm PHONE JACK 6 7 w RING 3 __ _ CCC Page 63 of 65 B 3 Cable Interconnect 1 CVBS2 Y2 A composite signal or the 3 MD 4P C2 Tip luminance component of an S Ch 2 Video signal for Channel 2 pF Ne oo E id Channel 2 Gnd CVBS1 Y1 A composite signal or the 3 MD 4P C1 Tip luminance component of an S Ch 1 Video signal for Channel 1 t O ideo Signos tor emmer an S Video signal for Channel 1 pF NO Camel tte E id Channel 1 Gnd C2 The Chrominance component of an MD 4P C2 AA eden sigues tor emamna aa o OA e E a input Jack o e Pe return Jack Page 64 of 65 B 4 Trigger Pin out The trigger plug that mates with the cable s jack should be a standard 3 5mm stereo plug and should have the following wiring SN 3 5mm Stereo Plug Trigger_in Page 65 of 652. Figure 3 Main dialog The Main dialog contains a Menu bar an Icon bar and a Status bar The Menu bar includes a set of pull down sub menus as follows Clicking on this item reveals a pull down menu with two options Player and Exit Play Files This option opens the Player Dialog and Player Control windows Clicking on this option causes the program to terminate Page 25 of 65 View Clicking on this item reveals a pull down menu with the following options Control Causes the Control Panel dialog to appear Panel Video Size Causes the Video Size dialog to appear Color Space Causes the Color Space Converter dialog to appear Converter RGB Causes the RGB Control dialog to appear Control RGB Causes the RGB Lookup Table dialog to appear Lookup Table Capture Causes the Capture Settings dialog to appear Settings Statistics Causes the Statistics dialog to appear Hex Pixel Causes the Hex Pixel Dump dialog to appear Dump Histogram Causes the Histogram dialog to appear Zoom Causes the Zoom menu to appear Help Clicking on this item reveals a pull down menu with two options About and Help Manual About Causes version information to be displayed including release identifiers for the application software library driver and firmware This information should be provided to Imperx technical support personnel during a s
3. 2 2 data received from the video decoder and translate it to YCrCb 4 4 4 data using a chroma resampler function RGB 24 bit Use the YCrCb 4 2 2 data received from the video decoder translate it to YCrCb 4 4 4 data using a chroma resampler function and then generate 24 bit RGB data using a color space converter function Transfer as Indicates how the card should transfer the video data into host system memory when the mode is interlaced Note that when the mode is progressive then the frames option is automatically selected Frames Interlaced Transfer as a complete frame consisting of an odd field followed by an even field Progressive Transfer as a complete frame with odd and even fields interlaced 1 e as received from the video source Fields Transfer each field individually Image These controls allow the user to adjust the brightness contrast hue and Control saturation of the image Brightness Moving the slider right increases brightness causing more white while moving it left decreases brightness causing less white o Contrast Moving the slider right increases contrast causing greater differences between dark and light while moving the slider left decreases contrast causing fewer differences between dark and light 2 Hue Moving the slider right increases hue causing an increase in the intensity of Red and Yellow while moving the slider left causes an increase in the intensity of Blue and Green
4. 7 oe a a oe oa ob Cr7 Cro Cro Cr4 Cr3 Cr2 Cr1 Cro Y7 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 YO Cb7 Cb6 Cb5 Cb4 Cb3 Cb2 Cb1 Cb0 Y7 Y6 Y3 Y2 4 2 2 d31 d30 d29 d28 d27 d26 d25 d24 D23 d22 d21 d20 d19 d18 d17 d16 d15 d14 d13 d12 411 d10 d9 d8 CS TS a d63 d62 d61 d60 d59 d58 d57 d56 D55 a54 a53 a52 a51 a50 dse asel E CAAT ETS d31 d30 d29 d28 d27 d26 d25 d24 d23 d22 d21 d20 d19 d18 d17 d16 d15 d14 d13 d12 d11 d10 d9 d8 d7 d6 d5 D4 d3 d2 di do d63 d62 d61 d60 d59 d58 d57 d56 d55 d54 d53 d52 d51 d50 d49 d48 d47 d46 d45 d44 d43 d42 d41 d40 439 d38 d37 d36 d35 d34 d33 d32 R7 R6 R5 R4 R3 R2 R1 ROJG7 G6 G5 G4 G3 G2 G1 G0 B7 B6 B5 B4 B3 B2 B1 BO RGB R7 RO R5 R4 R3 R2 R1 ROY G7 G6 G5 G4 G3 G2 G1 G0 B B6 B5 B4 B3 B2 B1 BO 24 Table 3 Pixel mapping into memory RGB 24 mode 2 pixels DW Page 9 of 65 Chroma Resampler Color Space Converter Y 7 0 Cr 7 0 Cb 7 0 This module is responsible for receiving YCrCb 4 2 2 video pixel data from the video decoder performing a coset function and delivering YCrCb 4 4 4 formatted data For example Input 4 2 2 data Y1 Cbl VOIGT Y3 Cb3 Y4 Cr4 Output 4 4 4 data Y1 Cb1 Cr2 Y2 Cb1 Cr2 Y3 Cb3 Cr4 Y4 Cb3 Cr4 This module is responsible for receiving YCrCb 4 4 4 video pixel data from the chroma_resampler module performin
5. Connector Y_ 8 CVBS0 YO Y Cc 8 Philips e VBSIMt_ lq Strobes 3 SAA7I15 q 0 gg RxClk O ALTERA Se Cyclone3 l2C_SCL ecoder FPGA q 2C SDA Trigger Detector Page 8 of 65 Figure 1 VCE Express Block Diagram 00000000 Video Capture The video capture engine is responsible for receiving video pixel data and qualifiers from the video decoder formatting the data and transferring it into on board memory The module receives 16 bits of video data organized as 8 bits of Luma data and 8 bits of Chroma data as well as VSYNC HSYNC and DATA_EN strobes The received video data is formatted as YCrCb 4 2 2 The video capture module supports three modes of operation as configured by the user YCrCb 4 2 2 uses the 16 bit YCrCb 4 2 2 data received from mode the video decoder e YCrCb 4 4 4 uses the 16 bit YCrCb 4 2 2 data received from mode the video decoder and translates it to 24 bit YCrCb 4 4 4 data using a chroma resampler function e RGB 24 uses the 16 bit YCrCb 4 2 2 data received from mode the video decoder and translates 1t to 24 bit YCrCb 4 4 4 data using a chroma resampler function and then generates 24 bit RGB data using a color space converter function The video_capture module translates the video data into doublewords 64 bits as defined in tables 3 2 thru 3 4 These formats reflect how the data will appear in host memory 58 d57 d56 481347 PECES a ooo oe ot 2 ca a Y2 5d
6. Install button when the following message appears Page 17 of 65 22 2 6 2 1 Windows Security Would you like to install this device software E Name Imperx Inc Sound video and game contro e 2 Publisher Imperx Inc 4 Always trust software from Impenx Inc Install Don t Install Fy You should only install driver software from publishers you trust How can decide which device software is safe to install When the following message appears choose if you would like to register online by clicking on Register CE Express aoe Ioj x Installation Complete I M P E RX Setup was completed successfully Culling Edge Imaging Solutions Installation complete Please take a Few moments to register your product on our website We strongly suggest that you do this so that we can notify you when new softwarelfirmware becomes available E Register now on Imperx website Nulsoft Install System v2 44 Click Next and then Finish This completes the software installation Reboot your computer The next step is to install the driver files 2 8 2 9 2 10 Insert the VCE Express card into the laptop For XP Wait for the system to prompt you with a Found New Hardware Wizard dialog box Proceed to Step 2 10 For Vista The driver will automatically be installed Proceed to step 2 15 Under certain conditions the following message may appear Pag
7. ee ae a ae Ped a EA 2 J Notes l CPPE indicates to the host that the card has been inserted 2 CLKREQ indicates to the host that the card is requesting that the REFCLK be provided This is a Power Management function and is not implemented on the VCE Express 3 WAKE is used to notify the host that it should re apply power to the card This is a Power Management function and is not implemented on the VCE Express 4 PERST is a reset signal driven by the host to reset the card 5 3 3V AUX is used to power the WAKE circuitry This is a Power Management function and is not implemented on the VCE Express Page 57 of 65 CME OER v Video Source External Trigger Physical Dimensions Weight Electrical Characteristics Operating Environment Regulatory Specifications NTSC PAL SECAM RS170 Vlomin 0 0V minimum forward voltage for logic 0 Vlomax 1 0V maximum forward voltage for logic 0 Vhimin 4 0V minimum forward voltage for logic 1 Vhimax 6 0V maximum forward voltage for logic 1 Vrmax 5 0V maximum reverse voltage Imn 5 0mA minimum current Imax 10 0mA maximum current MUST NOT BE EXCEEDED VCE EXPRESS ExpressCard 54 108mm 4 281n x 54mm 2 1in x 18mm 71n VCE EXPRESS F ExpressCard 54 75mm 2 97in x 54mm 2 11n x 4 93mm 21m 53 6 grams 1 91 0z 3 3V 5 700mA Operating voltage Operating current Operating temperature 0 C to 65 C Relat
8. every 01 Hr 00 Min 00 Sec Capture duration for each event Limit number of frames to 10 Total capture Limit total capture time to 06 Hr 00 Min 00 Sec Limit total number of frames to 300 Example 4 To capture continuously for a period of 2 hours and not to exceed a total of 100 images Capture event occurs Continuous Total capture Limit total capture time to 02 Hr 00 Min 00 Sec Limit total number of frames to 100 Page 44 of 65 NOTE Example 5 To capture 1 frame with each rising edge of the trigger signal and not to exceed a total of 25 images Capture event occurs With trigger Trigger on rising edge Capture duration for each event Limit number of frames to 1 Total capture Limit total number of frames to 25 Example 6 To capture 5 minutes worth of images with each falling edge of the trigger signal and not to exceed a total of 100 Images Capture event occurs With trigger Trigger on falling edge Capture duration for each event Limit capture time to 00 Hr 05 Min 00 Sec Total capture Limit total number of frames to 100 In the above examples capturing is enabled after the user clicks the Start Capture button The button then automatically changes to Stop Capture The user can prematurely abort the capturing process by clicking on Stop Capture Otherwise the capturing process will automatically stop after the conditions defined in Total capture are satisfi
9. gt IMPERXY Cutting Edge Imaging Solutions VCE Express User s Manual CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE Copyright 2009 Imperx Inc All rights reserved Any unauthorized use duplication or distribution of this document or any part thereof without the prior written consent of Imperx Corporation is strictly prohibited Imperx inc DOC 0016 0002 6421 Congress Ave Ste 204 Rev RA03 Boca Raton FL 33487 USA 09 18 13 CONFIDENTIAL amp PROPRIETARY Page 1 of 65 Revision History eee eee eee Page 2 of 65 Table Of Contents EHEXPTER lt I INTRODUCTION nscees Gaicaroscdonsacelctensanbe sacseeieioncosaceesaseuewendcede ssneeelescacouewess 5 NCEE SPIRE TN 6 WHAT YOU NEED TO GEF STARTED as dac s 12 INSPECTING THE VCE EXPRESS PACKAGE o cn 13 CHAPTER 2 HARDWARE INSTALLATION ceccscccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccscccccccccccccccccccccccoees 14 CHAPTER 3 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION 2 cccsccscccccccsccscccccccsccscccccsccscccccccsccsccccccccccscesccccccosccscescese 15 SOEDTWARE SUIT Erin pco o eae tetas emita E eean es baca aldo ecos el elio os eco A Sean ee tae ease ese 15 SOFTWARE INSTAEGATION FROM CD e ascos me discos aces sena tosco Aisa es neos sd dias dre dei dde e 17 SOFTWARE UPGRADE FROM WEB SITE Q ssceccsceccececcececcccececcsceccscuccecseeecscescscescscsecscsecscseescssescecescsctscscesescesescsecs 21 FIRMWARE UPGRADE FROM WEB SITE ccscecescecccceccscs
10. of the bounded region of pixels anywhere within the entire frame Another method of opening the Hex Pixel Dump window is to drag the mouse over the main image window while holding down the left mouse button This creates the yellow box that defines the pixel dump s bounded region and automatically open the Hex Pixel Dump window Page 47 of 65 VCE Express Fle View Help wena ak Om aaa e PAUSE Hex Dump region Camera Rate 30 Grabbing Rate Grabbing Count Figure 15 Sample image with Hex Dump region In the sample image above a Hex Dump region was opened starting at the upper left pixel coordinate X Y of 146 52 and ending at the lower right pixel coordinate of 159 64 The yellow square indicates the bounded region The Hex Pixel dumps for the YCrCb and RGB 24 modes are illustrated in Figures 16 and 17 respectively Note that in these samples the mouse was hovering over position 156 55 causing the values for that pixel to be emphasized Page 48 of 65 152 153 154 155 Figure 16 Hex Dump for YCrCb mode Hex dump Ed 52 EA 4 R 3C R O0 R OO R OO R OO R OO R OOJR O R OO R OO R O G G 3E G 00 G G DO G OO G G 00 c OO G 00 G OO G E BR B 3 DO B OO B 00 B OO B O0 B 1 OO 41 3F 40 Ba to 40 Q a N E tn oN N w oO Li la ay AS AB BE AB AS A 007 OR w p w Q WW ib Bw oO Da 0
11. Player Control Image Size 2 Full Frame 1 2 Frame O 1 4 Frame Path Ci Documents and Settings J Files Figure 20 Player Control dialog Determines the size of the Player Dialog window and the playback image Changing from one scale to another automatically updates the Player Dialog window and image size This text field allows you to enter the name of the folder or directory containing the image or movie files Clicking on the box will cause a Windows browse box to appear This box lists all of the image or movie files that are in the folder selected under Path Page 52 of 65 Rewind Displays the first image in the series Step Displays the previous frame or image Use this button to back through Backwards individual frames of an AVI Movie Play must be paused for this button to work on AVI Movies Play Begins playing the AVI movie If you are viewing JPEG or BMP images clicking this button displays a series of images one after another starting from the current file selected in the Player Control dialog Step Displays the next frame or image Use this button to advance through Forward individual frames of an AVI Movie Play must be paused for this button to work on AVI Movies Fast Displays the last image in the series Forward Stop Halts current playback Page 53 of 65 Player Dialog The Player Dialog window appears when the user selects the Play Files item unde
12. Red 64 for Green and 128 for Blue Lnputy OULDUL One pte sy OLLE Uproar 647 125 poop Oly LZ Lipo Ag OOo ke OU LID ZOO Pe OZ Page 60 of 65 A 3 Using Microsoft Excel The LUT file can be created in Excel as follows l create the spreadsheet as shown below note that 256 rows are required in the pixel table 2 add the necessary equations into the output cells to generate the transfer function required 3 save the file as a csv comma delimited format 4 rename the csv file to an extension of lut E Microsoft Excel Example_lookup_table E Elle Edit view Insert Format Tools Data Window Help Adobe PDF B270 j VCE Express RGB Lookup Table a 3 This provides a digital offset of 32 for Red 4 64 for Green and 126 for Blue E B Input Qutput_R Output_G Output_B 7 0 32 64 128 3 1 33 65 129 10 2 34 bb 130 255 255 255 255 Page 61 of 65 Cabling This appendix describes the custom cable that is provided with the VCE Express card Page 62 of 65 B 1 Overview The VCE Express card comes with a cable that adapts the card s 8 pin circular male receptacle to a set of standard connectors for video and trigger use The cable includes the following connectors An 8 pin circular male connector SwitchCraft part TASFLX Two SVideo connectors for video A stereo phono jack for trigger B 2 Cable Drawing 914 25mm i
13. Time Insert Timestamp When recording images to disk this option selects the format BMP JPEG TIFF AVI or RAW that the image will be saved in Selecting JPEG activates a compression slider Best provides the least compression while Small provides the most compression Selecting AVI enables the AVI Setup dialog to be opened Creates text to be overlayed on top of the captured image Automatically overlays the date and time received from the PC s operating system on each image recorded Date and time formats are the same as those used on your computer Automatically overlays an accurate timestamp on each image recorded The timestamp is a decimal integer value indicating the time in microseconds when the card acquired the frame from the attached video source Page 40 of 65 Insert Text Allows you to enter a text string to be automatically overlayed on Message each image recorded Position Defines the placement position of the date time text message within the image Available options include Top Left Top Center Top Right Bottom Left Bottom Center and Bottom Right File Name Selects the Path and Filename to be created Save This text field allows you to provide a path for the recorded image Folder file Clicking on the box will cause a Windows browse box to appear The user can then browse to a folder File This text field allows you to provid
14. cscscscsceccscuscecuccecucescscscscecscesescnsesceseecssescsseecscescscesescesesces 22 CHAPTER 4 USING THE V CE EXPRESS rip id 23 RUNNING THE V CEE XPRESS APPLICA TIN e a a de de Lo 24 MAIN IND e o a e os elo ad MU 25 CONTROLE PANEL DATO a e E a a e ao aes 29 NIDEO SIZE DIATOG ca dia asias 33 COLOR SPACE CONVERTER DIAL a il ale dos ener di ad 35 RGB CONTR Ol DIA GOOG a o o e o a ess dt e Ae 36 RGB LOOKUP TABLE DEAL e a el e eo eee 37 CAPTURE SETTINGS DIAL sd ds ds es di es ds lo 39 STATISTICS DIALOGO old 46 HEXSPREEDUME WIND a il ic dl cil actes el oe ae a obert Sea 47 HISTOGRAM WINDOW id raoba ada pato 50 ZOON INN a T 51 Vd VER A AAA A O II thet ee lao 52 PEAYERTDIALOG sana e e ie id end a ae a Do o al aa e AA a O 54 CHAPTER 5 ELEC FRICA DL INTE REA CES cursi a e 55 VIDEO CONNEC FOR ersten ves vodo scoat a e a e de ad do de a e dl do o da e e e do 56 EXPRESSCARDCONNECTOR e al del lo an e tat Se 57 CHAPTER 6 SPECIELCA TIOONS 0 cel 58 APPENDIX A CREATING LOOKUP TABLES u ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccsccccccccccoes 59 TAS Bene nee A POE ES REO UR RONETTR ERC ES RO 60 AZUSING AN AS GIP TEXT BDIMOR secsc5 5552 ceca canta a ele oO TE EEE Uco UU 60 PS USING WiICROSOPT EXC Beco od oi ne ETE NEI oe EEE E ENET 61 APPENDEX B CABINA dolce 62 DAN ds loli AE 63 RN TIN eed antes aa ai desacato alias ais apo as cadalso ee tae eee 63 DOC ABEE INTERE ONNEC Esa ac dt ataco ali lies aula tal pel
15. d from the video source but due to a lack of space in the card s on board receiver FIFOs had to be discarded Buffer overruns are an indication that the incoming pixel rate exceeds the bandwidth available on the ExpressCard interface Displays a running timestamp counter Each frame that is received from the video source and transferred into host memory is time stamped This field shows the timestamp value for the last frame processed Page 46 of 65 Hex Pixel Dump Window The Hex Pixel Dump window displays a two dimensional table of pixel values plotting row Y vs column X for a bounded region of pixels The hexadecimal value of each pixel is displayed in each cell For YCrCb formatted images three values representing Y Cr and Cb are displayed per pixel For RGB 24 formatted images three values representing R G and B are displayed per pixel Additionally the background color of each cell is color encoded Hovering the mouse over a given pixel reveals both the pixel s hexadecimal and integer values For example in the RGB 24 sample hex dump of Figure 17 with the mouse positioned at location 156 55 X Y a box 1s revealed showing that the value of the R G B components for the pixel at that location are BF AA CC in hexadecimal and 191 170 204 in integer A yellow square overlayed on the main image window shows the position of the bounded region Horizontal and vertical scroll bars allow the user to move the position
16. destabilize the correct operation of your system either immediately or in the future Microsoft strongly recommends that you stop this installation now and contact the hardware vendor for software that has passed Windows Logo testing Continue Anyway STOP Installation Click Continue Anyway to continue When Click finish to close the wizard appears click on Finish This completes the driver installation Page 20 of 65 software Upgrade from Web Site New application and or driver software may be released periodically to reflect improvements and or functionality added to the VCE Express You can retrieve these updates by visiting the download page of our web site at http www imperx com frame_grabbers VCE Express VCE_Express_downloads php Use the following steps to install newly released application software 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 5 Uninstall all application files by following the instructions in step 1 of the Software Installation from CD section Download the VCE_Express_Installer exe file from the Imperx web site to a new folder on your PC we will use the folder C new_VCE_Express as an example Left mouse click on Start Run enter or browse to C new_VCE_Express VCE_Express_Installer exe Left mouse click on Open then OK Follow the instructions starting from step 2 2 above Page 21 of 65 Firmware Upgrade from Web Site Your newly received VCE Expres
17. e 18 of 65 2 11 Found Mew Hardware Wizard Welcome to the Found New Hardware Wizard Windows will search for current and updated software by looking on your computer on the hardware installation CD or on the Windows Update Web site with your permission Read our privacy policy Can Windows connect to Windows Update to search for software O Yes this time only Yes now and every time connect a device f Mo not this time Click Next to continue If this message appears click No not this time then click Next When the following message appears select Install the software automatically Recommended then click Next Found New Hardware Wizard This wizard helps you install software for YCE Express Capture Card If pour hardware came with an installation CD lt or floppy disk insert it now What do you want the wizard to do 2 Install the software automatically Recommended 2 Install from a list or specific location Advanced Click Next to continue lt Back Cancel 2 12 The following message will appear Page 19 of 65 2 13 2 14 2 15 Hardware Installation AN The software you are installing for this hardware o YCE Express Capture Card haz not passed Windows Logo testing to very its compatibility with Windows lt P Tell me why this testing is important Continuing your installation of this software may impair or
18. e Saturation Moving the slider right increases saturation causing white to be removed from the colors while moving the slider left decreases saturation causing white to be added to the colors 0 Reset Causes the slider to revert back to 1ts default setting Gain Control Determines how the video decoder s AGC automatic gain control circuit processes the incoming video signal Page 31 of 65 Auto Manual Apply Start Stop Grab Enables the video decoder s AGC circuit to automatically adjust the gain Disables the video decoder s AGC circuit and instead applies the gain selected by the slider Causes the application to apply the current settings to the VCE Express card This button will toggle between Start Grab and Stop Grab every time the user clicks on it Clicking on Start Grab enables the VCE Express s DMA engine and causes the main window to display live images received from the video source Clicking on Stop Grab disables the DMA engine and causes the display to freeze Page 32 of 65 Input video signal Video Size Dialog The Image Size dialog allows the user to crop the size of the incoming image Some video sources produce extra black columns or rows that the user may wish to remove from the image There are two ways to remove these extraneous pixels manually using the Input video signal parameters or automatically using the Auto Crop feature The I
19. e a filename prefix for the Prefix recorded image file The filename extension BMP JPG TIF AVI or RAW will automatically be added depending on the image format chosen and therefore you do not need to include the filename extension Append to Allows the user to choose the format of the filename suffix to be filename created Every time a recording file is created the filename suffix will automatically be updated for the Date and Time option or incremented for the N Digit Number option Date and Time This option will create files named as N Digit Number Y Y Y YMMDDhhmmssnnmn where Y year 4 digits M month 2 digits D day 2 digits h hour 2 digits m minute 2 digits s second 2 digits n millisecond 3 digits This option will create numerically named files The filename starts at O and is incremented by one after each frame is captured If the number of frames captured exceeds the number of digits selected then the filename will continue to increment For example if the filename prefix is image then If 2 Digit Number is selected then the files will be named as imageO0O bmp mage01 bmp image99 bmp image100 bmp Page 41 of 65 imagel01 bmp etc If 4 Digit Number is selected then the files will be named as image0000 bmp mage0001 bmp image9999 bmp mage10000 bmp image
20. ed Page 45 of 65 Camera rate Grabbing rate Grabbing count Drop count Overrun count Timestamp Statistics Dialog The Statistics dialog displays real time status information about the current video source connection Camera rate ETS Fps Grabbing rate ETS fps Grabbing count 159 Frames Drop count lo Frames Overrun count fo Frames Timestamp 6245344 Figure 14 Statistics dialog Displays the real time frame rate of the attached video source as measured at the input of the VCE Express card Displays the real time rate at which frames are being transferred from the card into host memory Displays a running count of the total number of frames transferred into system memory This counter is reset when grabbing is stopped Displays a running count of the total number of dropped frames Dropped frames are defined as frames that were received from the video source but due to a lack of host buffers could not be transferred into host memory It is the host computer s responsibility to provide the card with pointers into host buffers If the host computer cannot keep up with the incoming frame rate then the card will drop frames The primary cause of this is background applications that are competing for the host processor s time and preventing it from servicing the VCE Express card Displays a running count of the total number of receiver buffer overruns Overruns are defined as pixel data that was receive
21. ervice call Help Causes an interactive point and click style help manual to be Manual displayed The help manual provides a summary description of all GUI controls and fields Page 26 of 65 Icon Bar gt 4 4 n E m D os tf 2 2 2 EH So BK The Icon bar contains a set of icons that act as shortcuts into the features located on the Menu bar Start stop continuous Grab Snap single frame start stop Capture to disk Open Control Panel dialog Open Video Size dialog Open Color Space Converter dialog Open RGB Control dialog Open RGB Lookup Table dialog Open Capture Settings dialog Open Statistics dialog Open Hex Pixel Dump dialog Open Histogram dialog Zoom In Zoom Out Fit to Window Zoom 1 1 Turn Grid on off Help Page 27 of 65 Status Bar Camera Rate Grabbing Rate Grabbing Count Pixel Position Pixel Value DMA Status Camera Status The Status bar reflects the real time state of the current video source connection Displays the real time frame rate of the attached video source as measured at the input of the VCE Express card Displays the real time rate at which frames are being transferred from the card into host memory Displays a running count of the total number of frames transferred into system memory This counter is reset when grabbing 1s stopped Displays the x y coordinates of the pixel at the current mouse position Displays the decimal value of the
22. es until the trigger goes high voltage present Page 42 of 65 Capture duration for each event Allows you to control how much to capture with each capture event specified above Limits can be specified by either time or number of frames whichever occurs first Limit capture Allows you to limit the duration of the recording by the amount of time to time specified Limit number Allows you to limit the duration of the recording by the number of of frames to Total capture Limit total frames specified Allows you to control how much to capture over all events specified above Limits can be specified by either time or number of frames whichever occurs first Allows you to limit the duration of the total recording by the capture time to amount of time specified Limit total number of frames to Buffer frames to memory Freeze preview window while capturing NOTE Allows you to limit the duration of the total recording by the number of frames specified NOTE Setting this field to O causes an infinite number of frames to be captured Clicking on Stop Capture is required to stop capturing When selected will store images in system memory during capturing When capturing is complete the images in memory will be flushed to the disk drive Select this option to improve capture performance 1 e the number of frames per second stored to disk If this option is not selected images will be stored di
23. g color space conversion and delivering RGB 24 formatted data The following parameters are configurable by the user Offsets Yoff CRoff and CBoff Coefficients Y1 R1 Gl G2 and B1 Limits R min R_ max G_min G_max B_min and B_max Yoff Y1 CRoff R1 Min Max le 6 E rr PN Min Max om Limit 3 gt G 7 0 CBoff Min Max N rg E de Limit Bi7 0 Figure 2 Color Space Converter Page 10 of 65 Pixel Buffering DMA FPGA The pixel data formatted by the video capture engine is stored into two on board FIFO memories This memory serves as an elastic store for formatted video pixel data The FIFOs are managed by an independent pair of controllers implemented in the FPGA supporting concurrent operation The two FIFOs are utilized in a ping pong fashion such that while one is being filled with new pixel data the other is being emptied via DMA into host memory The DMA engine is responsible for reading formatted pixel data from the on board FIFO memories and transferring them into host memory via the ExpressCard interface An intelligent scatter gather method is utilized providing for an efficient use of the ExpressCard bandwidth The use of non contiguous 4Kbyte buffers provides support for the Windows operating system s
24. h the card Page 16 of 65 Software Installation from CD Use the following steps to install the VCE Express software supplied on a CD Note that click refers to the left mouse button l If a version of VCE Express was previously installed on this machine then you must first remove it To remove the application files 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 Click on Start Click on Settings Click on Control Panel Double click on Add or Remove Programs Click on VCE Express Click on Remove If the VCE Express InstallShield Wizard pops up then do the following otherwise go to step 1 8 Click on Remove Click Next Click Yes Click Finish Click on Yes Click on Close After having removed a previous version or if a version of VCE Express was NOT previously installed on this machine then The first step is to install the application files el 22 2 3 2 4 Insert the VCE Express CD into the appropriate drive the setup exe file will run automatically Note If it does not start automatically then click on Start Run enter or browse to CD drive setup exe and click OK Wait for the VCE Express InstallShield Wizard screen to appear Follow the on screen instructions For Windows Vista 32 bit and Windows Vista 64 bit select Always trust software from Imperx Inc and click on
25. how to process the odd and even fields of an interlaced input video signal Merge Fields Instructs the card to interleave lines from the odd and even fields to produce a progressive frame For example for a 640 480 input the resultant progressive frame will consist of Linel odd_field_linel Line2 even_field_linel Line3 odd_field_line2 Line4 even_field_line2 Line479 odd_field_line240 Line480 even_field_line240 Duplicate Fields Instructs the card to duplicate every line of the odd field to produce the resultant frame The even field is ignored For example for a 640 480 input the resultant frame will consist of Linel odd_field_linel Line2 odd_field_linel Line3 odd_field_line2 Line4 odd_field_line2 Line479 odd_field_line240 Line480 odd_ field _line240 Input Color This selection informs the card of the strength on the incoming color Carrier Level signal If the input signal s strength is low due to a worn VCR head or excessive cabling then set this field to Low otherwise set it to Normal Color Settings Specifies the video mode as either monochrome or color Output These fields determine how the card should process the incoming video data Format Indicates how the card should format the video data prior to transferring it into host system memory Page 30 of 65 YCrCb 4 2 2 Use the 16 bit YCrCb 4 2 2 data received from the video decoder as 1s YCrCb 4 4 4 Use the YCrCb 4
26. ion contrast enhancement negative image etc can also be implemented This requires that the user specify the transformation via an LUT file see Appendix A for details Modified TF Modified TF Output signal Output signal Input signal Input signal Custom Transfer Function Double Knee Correction Modified TF Output signal Output signal z Original TF Original TF Pi Input signal Input signal Contrast enhancement Negative Image Figure 9 Examples of custom lookup table transformations Page 38 of 65 Start Stop Capture Capture Settings Dialog This dialog gives the user complete control over image storage Capture settings i xj Image Format Text Overlay e EMP Insert Date and Time e Best small Insert Timestamp Insert Text Message TIFF NI C avy AT Setup Position C Raw Top Left File Mame Save Folder Cusaved_ images El File prefix Image Append to Filename Date and Time 3 Digit Number 5 Digit Number 2 Digit Number 4 Digit Number 6 Digit Number Capture event occurs f Continuous Capture every Jo H o m o 5 With trigger Trigger on rising edge Capture duration foreach event Limit capture time Eo o H o mfo 5 Limit number oF frames Ea 1 Total capture Limit total capture time toj 0 H o mfo 5 Limit total number of Frames 1 z T Bufferi
27. ive humidity 90 non condensing FCC 15 part B CE RoHS Page 58 of 65 Creating Lookup Tables This appendix provides a reference on how to create a lookup table using both an ASCH editor and an Excel spreadsheet Page 59 of 65 A 1 Overview The Lookup Table file can be created using any standard ASCII text editor or by using Microsoft Excel Additionally any spreadsheet or mathematical program capable of generating a comma delimited file can be used A 2 Using an ASCII text editor A custom LUT can be prepared using any ASCII text editor Alternatively any spreadsheet program 1 e Microsoft Excel can be used by converting the spreadsheet into a comma delimited csv file In either case the file must be renamed to include the lut extension Each line in the file represents an input value and a set of three output values for R G and B The type of the inputs and outputs is decimal with a range O to 255 The input values represent incoming pixels and the output values represent what each incoming pixel should be converted to Lines preceded by two dashes are comment lines and are ignored by the parser The format of the LUT file is as follows Lines beginning with two dashes are comments and are ignored by the parser LNPT Output ROU pul Se VULPUT Ee 0 r0 g0 b0 1 r1 g1 b1 2 12 92 b2 LO GANO LIO ZO For example VCE Express RGB Lookup Table This provides a digital offset of 32 for
28. l 2 a MO Input video signal Contrast gt E e a 2 Saturation Video Standard NTSC Rate Fos 30 ted De Interlacing Merge fields Duplicate Field Gain control f Auto Manual Input color carrier level Color settings C Monochrome Normal f Color Output Format Ra Apply Stop grab Transfer as Frames Figure 4 Control Panel dialog Input Controls the video source selection Channel Composite Select this if the video source 1s a composite signal S Video Select this if the video source is an S Video signal Channel 1 Select this if the video source is connected to input channel 1 Channel 2 Select this if the video source is connected to input channel 2 Input video These fields describe the attributes of the currently connected video signal source The fields are automatically populated by the application program Video Standard Indicates the format of the connected video source as either NTSC or PAL Mode Indicates the mode as either Progressive or Interlaced Page 29 of 65 Rate fps Indicates the rate of the connected video source If the mode is progressive then the rate is in units of frames per second If the mode is interlaced then the rate is in units of fields per second Locked Indicates that the card is locked to an incoming video signal De Interlacing These options control
29. l0001 bmp etc Capture event Allows you to control how often to start capturing images occurs Continuous Specifies that image capture is free running Capturing begins as Capture every With Trigger Trigger on rising edge Trigger on falling edge Trigger while high Trigger while low soon as the Start Capture button is pressed Specifies how often in time to start capturing images Use this feature to take snapshots at regular intervals in order to create a time lapse series of images When this option is selected images will be captured when the External Trigger signal becomes active A drop down menu allows the user to specify the conditions of the External Trigger signal necessary to start image capture Note that all triggers work in conjunction with the Capture duration for each event and Total capture settings Trigger on rising edge Trigger on Falling edge Trigger while high Trigger while low Figure 12 Trigger options Start capturing images when the trigger goes from low voltage absent to high voltage present Start capturing images when the trigger goes from high voltage present to low voltage absent Start capturing images when the trigger is high voltage present and continue capturing images until the trigger goes low voltage absent Start capturing images when the trigger is low voltage absent and continue capturing imag
30. layed Auto Crop Clicking on this button invokes an algorithm performed by the Threshold Default VCE Express software that scans an image from left to right right to left top to bottom and bottom to top looking for a transition in the pixel intensity from black to a threshold value It will then note the number of black pixels and adjust the H and V parameters accordingly This field allows the user to define the threshold value to be used by the Auto Crop algorithm Click this button to revert back to the default H and V settings Page 34 of 65 Default Apply Color Space Converter Dialog The Color Space Converter dialog allows the user to adjust the behavior of the color space conversion function This function is responsible for converting from YCrCb video data to the RGB 24 format Note that if either the YCrCb 4 2 2 or YCrCb 4 4 4 mode is selected then YCrCb data is delivered from the card into host memory and therefore the color space conversion function is performed by software However if RGB 24 mode is selected then the color space conversion is performed on the card and RGB 24 data is delivered from the card into host memory Color space converter xj Y OFF i6 1 1 1640 Apply 19 a Min Max Cr OF 125 R1 1 5960 o 255 Cr z 0 x om Limit R 7 0 Min Max o 255 G2 0 3920 a Limit 6 7 0 x Min Max Cb OFF 128 El 2 0170 Jo 255 A O A Figure 6 Color Space Conver
31. mage Size dialog also allows the user to scale the size of the output displayed image The user can up scale or down scale the image in order to produce an image that matches his screen s resolution ES Input video signal Output video size 0 re q 640 1 flo 720 E 4 575 fo a pao Thresold 50 Auto Crop Default Figure 5 Video Size dialog Allows the user to manually crop the image Note that as an alternative to using the sliders the user can enter the start and end values into the edit boxes H This slider defines the starting and ending horizontal pixels in each row and thereby deletes any leading left most or trailing right most columns in the image V This slider defines the starting and ending vertical lines and thereby deletes any leading top most and trailing bottom most rows in the image Output Allows the user to manually scale up or down the size of the video size image to be displayed For example the input size may be 720 480 but the image to be displayed can be down scaled to 640 480 Note that as an alternative to using the sliders the user can enter the width H and height Y values into the edit boxes H This slider defines the width i e number of horizontal pixels in each row of the image to be displayed Page 33 of 65 This slider defines the height 1 e number of vertical lines of the image to be disp
32. memory allocation model The heart of the VCE Express is a dense Field Programmable Gate Array FPGA This FPGA implements all of the functions related to video data capture formatting storage and DMA The firmware contents of the FPGA can be upgraded while in the field by following the instruction outlined in Section 3 of this document entitled Firmware Upgrade from Web Site Page 11 of 65 What you need to get started To begin using the VCE Express card you need the following A computer with a ExpressCard 54 slot Microsoft Windows XP 2000 Vista operating system software A computer with at least 256M bytes of RAM A CD drive and a hard disk on which to install the VCE Express software Page 12 of 65 Inspecting the VCE Express package When you unpack your VCE Express package you should visually inspect all of its contents If something is missing or damaged contact your Imperx representative Package contents You should have received the following items e The VCE Express card e A VCE Express cable circular plug to S Video connectors e An adapter cable S Video to RCA e ACD with the VCE Express software suite e A Quick Start installation guide Page 13 of 65 Chappie Y Hardware Installation Installing the VCE Express card is as simple as plugging it into an available ExpressCard 54 slot on your computer Page 14 of 65 0 CARLA Software Installation This cha
33. ng Buffer Frames to memory Display Freeze preview window while capturing Stark Capture Figure 10 Capture Settings dialog This button will toggle between Start Capture and Stop Capture every time the user clicks on it Clicking on Start Capture starts the process of recording the images to disk The options set in the fields above it determine what how and when actual recording is performed Clicking on Stop Capture causes recording to stop Page 39 of 65 Image Format AVI Setup Allows the user to configure AVI parameters An AVI movie is a series of images assembled into a single AVI file avisetup ee Frames per Second 30 Learn from card Compressor Uncompressed Options ne Figure 11 AVI Setup dialog Frames per Limits the frame rate of the recorded movie Second Learn from Clicking on this button causes the actual frame rate of the card attached video source to be read from the card and automatically populated into the Frame per Second field Compressor Allows you to choose between a variety of compressor implementations and options This pull down menu lists several different implementations of AVI compressors Each has its own set of configuration options OK Causes the application to apply the current settings to the VCE Express card and then closes the AVI Setup dialog Cancel Closes the AVI Setup dialog without applying the changes Text Overlay Insert Date and
34. nnnnnnnncninoss 9 Table Video Connector IO Wiere lia S6 rable 5 ExpressCard Connector POWs lia 57 Page 4 of 65 Introduction This chapter outlines the key features of the Imperx VCE Express card Page 5 of 65 Functionality Interfaces VCE Express The VCE Express frame grabber is a 54mm ExpressCard with both an NTSC PAL analog interface and a PCI Express x1 lane interface It provides the ability to capture analog NTSC PAL video data from either a CVBS or S Video source and transfer that data to host memory via an ExpressCard PCIe interface Provides two composite or S Video inputs Captures video data from a standard NTSC PAL SECAM or RS170 analog source formats this data and stores it into local FIFOs Data can be formatted as 16 bit YCrCb 4 2 2 16 bit YCrCb 4 4 4 or as 24 bit RGB Retrieves the formatted data from the FIFOs and transfers it into host memory via a scatter gather DMA over the x1 lane PCI Express interface Provides an external triggering capability that can qualify image capture based on an external signal Provides the ability to upgrade the FPGA firmware in the field by the user Analog interface The VCE Express provides two CVBS composite or two S Video inputs using either an 8 pin circular connector model VCE EXPRESS or discrete embedded cables model VCE EXPRESS F ExpressCard interface The VCE Express provides a ExpressCard 54 compliant interface This supp
35. o signal for Channel 1 ANALOG GNDI A shield ground signal for Channel 1 C2 The Chrominance component of an S Video signal for Channel 2 Trigger_In An optically isolated Trigger input Trigger_In An optically isolated Trigger return Table 4 Video Connector Pin out Electrical The external trigger input is optically isolated from the rest of the VCE Considerations Express hardware An internal 300 ohm series resistor is used to limit the input current The input signals Trigger_In and Trigger_In are used to connect to an external trigger source A logic 0 is considered a positive voltage between Trigger_In and Trigger_In of Ov to 1 0v A logic 1 is considered a positive voltage between Trigger_In and Trigger_In of 4 0v to 5 0v 0 1uF Ezz C235 0 1uF ol R193 300 TRIGGER_IN 25 JH BAS16LP 7 gt WIDEO_TRIGGER_L TRIGGER_IN gt uig HCTSZ125 Figure 22 External trigger schematic CAUTION NOTE The maximum Trigger input current MUST NOT exceed 10mA or else damage may occur to the card Page 56 of 65 ExpressCard Connector The ExpressCard connector is a surface mount right angle 26 position female connector In Out Note Ed O 0 po eee not used Y 00 A OOIAO0ONaS5S not used 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Table 5 ExpressCard Connector Pin out 3 5 po E A
36. oct 64 DATA A e e o dd e sl E aos eee 65 Page 3 of 65 Illustrations Fome 1 V CEE xpress Block Ai a N O E OOT EA A 8 Peme 2 Color Space Converted 10 Pe ie AMVC AO AAA A O II E EA 29 Per Aec onol Pane dialon id E E EE E 29 Elite VICO IZ O EE E EEA E AE 33 Pigure 6 ColorSpace Converter Malos zroas dicas 35 Pisure ARGB Cono dao serere E AE 36 Pisure S ROB Lookup Table dialo ecesas E E E AE 37 Figure 9 Examples of custom lookup table transformati0DS ooooooccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 38 Eistte 10 C Apure S etnas GIAO sac AA A OAE 39 Breve LES AVIS erp UA a tados 40 Prete 2 Tre Sr OPUS a te A cda 42 Eistit 15 QUEME OE a ado 43 Pr Ute 14 Stats d ilO T as ad 46 Fistt 15 Sample tmage with Hex DUMAS I coun 48 Feie o Hex Dump Tor CC D MOJE oi o eto bee 49 Heie 1 Hes Dump ior ROB 24A Imode occ 49 R e AEE ON A E E E EEE A T E A A che cmeecnicd 50 Pi ite S r T AAT 51 Het a Pay r Enno cie lioiaboids 52 Pie re 2 r Player Dalo OS 54 Pie 22 xtemal mie Ser CAMA NES 56 Tables Table 1 Pixel mapping into memory YCrCb 4 2 2 mode 4 pixels DW oocccccncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnninnnnnss 9 Table 2 Pixel mapping into memory YCrCb 4 4 4 mode 2 pixels DW oocccccncnnncnononononononnnnnnnnnonnnnnnncnnnoninininos 9 Table 3 Pixel mapping into memory RGB 24 mode 2 pixels DW ooccncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnn
37. ogramming done verify done Resetting done Page 22 of 65 0 CMEJICS Y Using the VCE Express card This chapter contains information on how to configure and use the VCE Express card Page 23 of 65 Launching Application Note Running the VCE Express Application The VCE_Express exe program supplied with the VCE Express card is a stand alone Windows based application It provides an easy to use graphical user interface GUI allowing the user to configure the VCE Express card and to view record and playback video data received from the analog interface The application consists of a main window as well as several other dialogs which can be accessed from the main menu or from convenient icons To launch the VCE Express program simply double left mouse click on the VCE Express Application icon on the desktop a Vv CE Express Application In the remainder of this chapter references to clicking on objects in the GUI refers to the left mouse button Page 24 of 65 Menu Bar File Main Window When the VCE Express application is executed a main window titled VCE Express will appear The main window provides the primary area for viewing real time images received from the video source This window can be sized and moved to suit your needs When image viewing is active the size of this window will automatically be scaled as a function of the input signal E YCE Express
38. or pencil mode of operation In the pencil mode the user can use the mouse to draw the desired transfer function directly on each graph In the gamma mode the user can enter an explicit gamma value or use the up down arrows to increment decrement the value or move the slider to the desired value Using G as the gamma coefficient the gamma correction equation 1s Output_value Input_value 255 255 This button sets the gamma edit box to a value of 1 000 Page 37 of 65 Enable Load table Save table Transfer to card Selecting this check box turns on LUT processing Note that prior to enabling LUT processing an LUT file must first be transferred into the card Opens a Windows browse box allowing the user to select a folder and filename for the LUT file to be opened The lookup table specified will be opened and plotted in the three graphs The LUT file can be any file custom or gamma that follows the format specified in Appendix A Opens a Windows browse box allowing the user to select a folder and filename for the current LUT file to be saved The filename extension ut will automatically be added and therefore you do not need to include the filename extension Causes the current lookup table displayed in the graphs to be loaded into the VCE Express card Custom Lookup Tables using an LUT file Custom arbitrary transformations for the purposes of knee correct
39. orts a x1 lane end point PCI Express interface as defined in the ExpressCard standard The design does not support any memory mapped or I O mapped peripherals on the card Access to the card s pixel data FIFOs is achieved through DMA operations that move the data from the FIFOs into host memory Access to the card s pointer queue FIFOs is achieved through DMA operations that move the data from host memory into the FIFOs The host cannot directly access the contents of either of these FIFOs The design supports host access into PCI Express configuration registers as well as application specific frame grabber registers Page 6 of 65 The ExpressCard standard also defines a Universal Serial Bus USB and a Serial Management Bus SMBus interface on the ExpressCard connector These interfaces are unused in the VCE Express card design Page 7 of 65 SOO 00 OOOO ODO oOo0o0o0000000000 ExpressCard Connector A functional block diagram of the VCE Express card is illustrated in Figure 1 PD Dy RxD 24 y CLK 2 y PCI Express PHY TxD TxCLK RxD RxCLK 3 3V 3 3V 3 3V to 2 5V converter 2 5V to 1 25V converter converter 2 5V 1 25V E 1 2V 3 3V to 1 2V q 0 8 TxStrobes 8 RxStrobes gt GOOD CPO JTAG ByteBlaster Programming Header Configuration EEPROM EPCS64 Analog Video
40. pixel at the current mouse position If the mode is YCrCb then the Y Cr and Cb values will be displayed If the mode is RGB 24 then the R G and B values will be displayed Displays the real time status of the DMA process as being either active or inactive Active indicates that the user has commanded the VCE Express to acquire video data by clicking on the Start Grab button and that the video source is providing valid framing Inactive indicates that either the user has commanded the VCE Express to stop acquiring video data by clicking on the Stop Grab button or that grabbing is enabled but the video source is not providing valid framing Displays the real time status of the attached video source as being either online or offline Online indicates that a video source is powered on attached and providing a video clock via the analog interface Offline indicates that the VCE Express card is not receiving a video clock from the attached source either because the source 1s powered off or the video cable is disconnected Page 28 of 65 Control Panel Dialog The Control Panel dialog allows the user to control the operating parameters of the VCE Express card and also reports the attributes of the attached video source Control panel a F Input channel oit T Composite Channel 1 Image control Brightness video channe
41. pter explains how to install the VCE Express software Software Suite The VCE Express software suite consists of the following files Windows application files located in C Program Files ImperX VCE_ Express Application Win32 and C Program Files ImperX VCE_ Express Application x64 VCE Express exe Application program VCEANCB dll VCE Express SDK library DrvManager exe Driver debug utility VCE Express chm Help file ippLib dll Intel image processing library IpxLog dll Imperx logging library IpxMisc dll Imperx miscellaneous library IpxMovieMaker dll Imperx movie maker library DSMoviewWriter ax Movie Writer DirectShow filter Windows driver files located in C Program Files ImperX VCE Express Drivers Kernel WinXP 2000 Vista kernel driver files Software Development Kit SDK files located in C Program Files ImperX VCE Express SDK bin folder binaries doc folder documentation Page 15 of 65 examples folder sample source code inc folder include files lib folder libraries Documentation files located in C Program Files ImperX VCE Express Doc VCE_Express_Users_Manual pdf User manual document VCE_Express_Datasheet pdf Technical datasheet QUICK START VCE_EXPRESS pdf Quick start manual Note that our VCE Express application program was created using our SDK software developers kit Our SDK is included in the standard VCE Express software suite that comes wit
42. r the File pull down menu at the top of the VCE Express main window The Player Dialog window provides the primary area for viewing playback of pre recorded images or movies This window can be moved anywhere around the screen to suit your needs The size of the window and image 1s determined by the size of the image file selected in the Player Control window and can be scaled using the Image Size option For example if the user selects an image file that was produced by a 640x480 resolution camera then the Full frame window size will be 640x480 In this example selecting Y frame produces a window size of 320x240 and selecting 1 4 frame produces a size of 160x120 Page 54 of 65 ClMmeyOES Y Electrical Interfaces This chapter contains information on the VCE Express card s connectors Page 55 of 65 Video Connector The video connector is an 8 pin panel mount circular male receptacle SwitchCraft part TRAPC8MX The mating plug on the cable is a SwitchCraft part TA8FLX The pins are used for the analog video and trigger inputs as indicated below Signal Description________ CVBS2 Y2 A composite signal or the luminance component of an S Video signal for Channel 2 ANALOG GND2 A shield ground signal for Channel 2 CVBS1 Y1 A composite signal or the luminance component of an S Video signal for Channel 1 Cl The Chrominance component of an S Vide
43. rectly to disk and therefore capture performance will be limited by the disk s transfer rate When selected will stop the live image in the main window from updating during capture otherwise the image will remain live Selecting this option improves capture performance 1 e the number of frames per second stored to disk While capturing is in progress if the host operating system denies the VCE Express application s request to allocate more frame buffers in host memory then the following error message will appear YCE Express Ed System ran out of memory Capture Stopped Frames captured 1649 Memory used 1976 MBytes Figure 13 Out of Memory error Page 43 of 65 Examples of how to use Capture timers and counters Example 1 To capture 5 frames every 1 5 hours over a 12 hour period Capture event occurs Capture every 01 Hr 30 Min 00 Sec Capture duration for each event Limit number of frames to 5 Total capture Limit total capture time to 12 Hr 00 Min 00 Sec Example 2 To capture 5 minutes worth of images every 15 minutes and not to exceed a total of 250 images Capture event occurs Capture every 00 Hr 15 Min 00 Sec Capture duration for each event Limit capture time to 00 Hr 05 Min 00 Sec Total capture Limit total number of frames to 250 Example 3 To capture 10 frames every 1 hour over a 6 hour period and not to exceed a total of 300 images Capture event occurs Capture
44. s card has been programmed in the factory with the latest firmware prior to shipping New firmware however may be released periodically to reflect improvements and or added functionality You can retrieve these updates by visiting the download page of our web site at http www imperx com frame_grabbers VCE Express VCE_Express_downloads php Use the following steps to install newly released firmware l Download and unzip the firmware Upgrade Utility file to a folder on your PC 2 Insert the VCE Express card into the laptop Note that 1f your system has two ExpressCard slots then you must insert the card into the slot in which it was placed during the original driver installation 3 If the system prompts you with a New Hardware Found dialog box then you have not previously installed the driver You must follow the steps outlined in the section above titled Software Installation from CD to install the driver 4 To run the Upgrade Utility simply double click on the icon Note DO NOT POWER DOWN OR REMOVE THE CARD WHILE PROGRAMMING IS IN PROGRESS 5 The Upgrade Utility will display the following dialog box CE Express Remote Upgrade q xi Welcome to the YCE Express remote upgrade utility This utility will upgrade the Firmware on vour VCE Express card Current Firmware information Revision 0 1 0 3 Triage ID Application New Firmware information Revision 0 1 0 4 Image ID Application Erasing done Pr
45. ses the displayed image zoom to be decreased The user can hit the Ctrl and keys or the icon from the icon bar as shortcuts Causes the displayed image to be scaled to fill the entire image window The user can change the image window by dragging is sides or corners Note that the Fit to Window function will maintain the aspect ratio of the original image Causes the displayed image to be 25 of the original image This scaling factor will also be applied to the saved image files Causes the displayed image to be 50 of the original image This scaling factor will also be applied to the saved image files Causes the displayed image to be 100 of the original image This scaling factor will also be applied to the saved image files Causes the displayed image to be 200 of the original image This scaling factor will also be applied to the saved image files Causes the displayed image to be 400 of the original image This scaling factor will also be applied to the saved image files Page 51 of 65 Image Size Path Files Player Control Clicking on the Play Files item under the File pull down menu at the top of the VCE Express main window causes two windows to appear the Player Control and Player Dialog windows These windows can be moved anywhere around the screen to suit your needs The Player Control window is used to select the pre recorded image or movie files that you wish to view
46. ss card to analyze the current image received from the video source and to calculate a set of RGB Gain coefficients that will cause the sample image to be white balanced NOTE Before clicking on Analyze the user should reset all gains to unity and point the video source at a uniform white target Instructs the VCE Express card to use the calculated RGB Gain coefficients acquired during the analyze procedure and to apply these to the received image prior to display Page 36 of 65 Gamma Pencil Reset RGB Lookup Table Dialog The RGB Lookup Table feature allows the user to modify and transform the original video data The pixel values for each of the R G and B components can be mapped into new values The mapping from input to output values is defined in a lookup table LUT file The LUT file is an ASCII text file that can be created and modified by the user see Appendix A for details or can be automatically generated by the VCE Express application Gamma Correction and custom Lookup Tables using the GUI Gamma correction is the process of compensating for the non linearity of CRT displays The VCE Express application can automatically create gamma lookup tables It can also create custom lookup tables using an interactive drawing feature RGB Lookup Table EEES EEES e FP Enable Load table Save table Transfer to card Figure 8 RGB Lookup Table dialog This pull down menu specifies the gamma
47. ter dialo Sets all parameters back to their default values Instructs the color space converter function to use the values entered into the various fields Note that entering values into the fields will not have an effect on the image until the Apply button 1s clicked Page 35 of 65 RGB Offset RGB Gain Unity White balance Analyze Apply RGB Control Dialog The RGB Control dialog allows the user to adjust the gain and offset for each of the RGB color components Optionally the gains can be set automatically by invoking a white balance function Note that if either the YCrCb 4 2 2 or YCrCb 4 4 4 mode is selected then YCrCb data is delivered from the card into host memory and therefore the RGB control function is performed by software However if the RGB 24 mode is selected then the RGB control is performed on the card and RGB 24 data is delivered from the card into host memory RGB Control RGB Offset RGB Gain Red Red 1 0000 a L areen 1 0000 Blue a Blue 1 0000 Link Unity white balance Apply Red gain 0 000000 areen gain 0 000000 Blue gain 0 000000 Mean RGB 10 0 0 Figure 7 RGB Control dialog Specifies the amount of offset to apply to each of the R G and B components Specifies the amount of gain to apply to each of the R G and B components This button sets all gains to a value of 1 0000 Performs an automatic white balancing procedure Instructs the VCE Expre
48. w G B Do an Doan w Q D UQ QD WAV WADD WQP WADD DAD wU QD Qu AD QD jnl QJ o w ee o Om Q 007 OO O w Figure 17 Hex Dump for RGB 24 mode Page 49 of 65 Histogram Window The Histogram window displays three graphs one per component When the YCrCb 4 2 2 or YCrCb 4 4 4 modes are selected it will display plots for the Y Cr and Cb components When the RGB 24 mode is selected it will display plots for the R G and B components Each plot is a histogram of the current frame being displayed in the image window as a function of pixel frequency Y axis vs pixel value X axis The pixel frequency in the Y axis represents the total number of pixels for a given pixel value The range of the pixel value in the X axis is O to 255 8 bits 10000 1000 Figure 18 Histogram window Page 50 of 65 Zoom in Zoom out Fit to window 25 90 100 200 400 Zoom Menu The Zoom menu allows the user to select various zooming and scaling functions The zoom menu can be invoked via the View item on the Menu bar or by right clicking the mouse over the image window zoom in Ctrl Zoom ouk Ctrl Fit Eo window Ctrl 0 oo Alt 4 Ss Alt 2 w 100 Ctrl 1 00 Chrl z 400 trl 4 Figure 19 Zoom menu Causes the displayed image zoom to be increased The user can hit the Ctrl and keys or the icon from the icon bar as shortcuts Cau
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