Elements of a Camera System (Windows Embedded CE 6.0)
1/6/2010
The overall camera architecture is composed of several interrelated elements. The following terms and concepts are used to describe the camera hardware, the software that controls it, and the captured data flowing from it.
- Device driver
The layer of software that controls the physical camera hardware. A single camera driver can control multiple cameras.
- Device instance
A single complete physical set of camera hardware. A camera device driver can support multiple device instances.
- Adapter
The logical representation of a device instance in software.
- Pin
The camera driver architecture uses the concept of a pin as defined by the DirectShow middleware. For more information, see Pins. Pins are used to transmit data in and out of a device and are always in one of three states: stopped, paused, and playing. A camera driver can support up to three types of pins: preview, capture, still. Each pin can support a number of media formats. The DirectShow middleware manages the process matching media formats from camera output pins with pins on downstream filters. For more information, see Video Format Negotiation.
- Pin driver
Software used to control a pin. A pin driver can support multiple pins.
- Pin instance
A single pin on an adapter.
- Pin handle
A unique identifier that provides a means of locating a single specific pin.
- Stream
Data that flows out of an adapter's pin and to the application.