CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowscameradriverwebcam
has981
has981

Reputation: 445

How can vimicro's AMCAP.exe capture video by cameras running different drivers?

I've been experimenting with two cameras, one is a webcam and another is an evaluation-kit camera that comes with its own drivers, I can run AMCAP.exe (provided from Vimicro) and it will display live streaming from the connected camera (any of the two) although each one uses a different driver.

My question is: Is it safe to assume that AMCAP.exe is only running as a video-stream display program? In which case, I assume that most camera vendors follow a common standard interface for camera drivers. Could anyone comment on such assumption or explain how AMCAP.exe is able to do that.

I've been able to use both cameras in my c++ based OpenCv applications, but I'm asking because a 3rd company is going to provide me with a usb board-based camera (for evaluation) and they are asking about driver specs. so I suggested that it should work with windows default driver similar to how a webcam would so as to avoid compatibility issues but I'm wondering if there is a better option that I might be missing.

Note I: I've been able to verify that different drivers are being used for each camera by: Start->Devices and Printers->USB 2.0 Camera->Hardware tabe->USB 2.0 camera->Driver->Driver Details. When the webcam is connected, it is using the microsoft provided driver files: ksthunk.sys and usbvideo.sys. When I disconnect the webcam and connect the evaluation camera, I am able to verify that it is using it's own (non-windows) driver.

Note II: Vimicro's AMCAP.exe can be downloaded from: VIMICRO USB PC Camera (VC0303) - CNET Download.com

Note III: Computer is core i7. OS is win7 64bit.

Any help or input on this is truly appreciated and immensely needed.

Best, Hasan.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1875

Answers (1)

SomeWittyUsername
SomeWittyUsername

Reputation: 18348

Camera drivers must implement the OS-defined interface which isn't different for various devices of the same category (in your case it's USB camera). Default drivers for some devices are bundled with Windows and it's ok to use them. However, they aren't necessary optimal for each and every device. E.g., for cameras they might support only a limited set of supported resolutions or might not be optimal with power saving (just an example, not necessary what really happens!). This is because MS implements only the basic and necessary functionality that must be present in every device and doesn't depend on proprietary HW of various vendors. Dedicated camera driver should provide all the additional functionality - you're the one to decide if it's important for you or not.

Upvotes: 1

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