The Image Acquisition Tool Desktop

Opening the Tool

Image Acquisition Toolbox™ functionality is available in a desktop application. You connect directly to your hardware in the tool and can preview and acquire image data. You can log the data to MATLAB® in several formats, and also generate a VideoWriter file, right from the tool.

The Image Acquisition Tool provides a desktop environment that integrates a preview/acquisition area with Acquisition Parameters so that you can change settings and see the changes dynamically applied to your image data.

To open the Image Acquisition Tool, do one of the following:

  • Type imaqtool at the MATLAB command line.

  • Select Image Acquisition on the Apps tab in MATLAB.

Note

The right pane in the tool is the Desktop Help pane. As you work in the tool the Help will provide information for the part of the interface that you are working in. If the Desktop Help is closed, you can open it be selecting Desktop > Desktop Help.

Parts of the Desktop

The Image Acquisition Tool has the following panes.

  • Hardware Browser – Shows the image acquisition devices currently connected to your system. Each device is a separate node in the browser. All of the formats the device supports are listed under the device. Each device's default format is indicated in parentheses. Select the device format or camera file you want to use for the acquisition. When the format is selected, you can then set acquisition parameters and preview your data. See Selecting Your Device in Image Acquisition Tool for more information about using the Hardware Browser.

  • Preview window – Use to preview and acquire image data from the selected device format, and to export data that has been acquired in memory to a MAT-file, the MATLAB Workspace, VideoWriter, or to tools provided by the Image Processing Toolbox™ software. See Previewing and Acquiring Data in Image Acquisition Tool for more information about using the Preview window.

  • Acquisition Parameters – Use these tabs to set up general acquisition parameters, such as frames per trigger and color space, device-specific properties, logging options, triggering options, and region of interest. Settings you make on any tab will apply to the currently selected device format in the Hardware Browser. See Setting Acquisition Parameters in Image Acquisition Tool for more information about using the Acquisition Parameters. Also see the Help for each tab while using the tool for more details. When you click any tab, the help for that tab will appear in the Desktop Help pane.

  • Information pane – Displays a summary of information about the selected node in the Hardware Browser.

  • Session Log – Displays a dynamically generated log of the commands that correspond to actions taken in the tool. You can save the log to a MATLAB code file or copy it.

  • Desktop Help – Displays Help for the pane of the desktop that has focus. Click inside a pane for help on that area of the tool. For the Acquisition Parameters pane, click each tab to display information about the settings for that tab.

    If the Desktop Help is closed, you can open it by selecting Desktop > Desktop Help.

Image Acquisition Toolbox Documentation

Support