EMVA releases GenICam 1.0
Staff -- Test & Measurement World, 11/1/2006
In September, the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) officially released version 1.0 of its GenICam standard, which defines a generic programming interface for machine-vision cameras. The standard makes it possible for developers to use a single piece of code to configure cameras produced by different vendors and equipped with various interface technologies, such as IEEE 1394, GigE, or Camera Link.
To support GenICam, a camera vendor must supply a "camera description file" that uses XML syntax to describe the mapping of the camera's high-level features (such as gain or exposure) to its low-level registers. The GenICam standard group created a C++ reference implementation that reads the camera description file and provides a unified application programming interface (API) for the camera.
The API reflects all of the features described in the camera description file. As a result, when new features are added to a camera and to its description file, the features are immediately available via any software product that supports GenICam.
EMVA says that the GigE Vision standard should also give a boost to GenICam, because GigE Vision relies on GenICam to achieve interoperability between Gigabit Ethernet based cameras. To comply with GigE Vision, a camera must provide a GenICam camera description file. www.emva.org.
