KMC_READ

Section: Version 0.3.1 (8)
Updated: Aug 23, 1999
Index  

NAME

kmc_read - read settings and images from Kodak Motion Corder high speed digital cameras  

SYNOPSIS

kmc_read [ options... ] [ device ]  

DESCRIPTION

kmc_read is part of the kmc_utils package for controlling and reading information and images from Kodak Motion Corder(KMC) high speed digital cameras. This version is designed to run on Linux, although future versions may support other Unix variants.

kmc_read is the command line interface to retrieving information from KMCs through the SCSI interface. This includes retrieving information about the camera and its current settings, as well as retrieving images stored in a KMC's memory. It does not allow remote control of a KMC, which is done through a serial interface using kmc_control.

 

OPTIONS

-h
Show usage (help) information
-v
Show version number
-l
List generic SCSI devices on system
-L
List vendor and product of generic SCSI devices on system
-k
List generic SCSI devices which are Kodak Motion Corders
-q
Short query of device information for device
-Q
Long query of device information for device
-f frame
Read frame frame from device
-s startframe
Read multiple frames, starting at frame startframe from device
-e endframe
Read multiple frames, ending at frame endframe from device
-n nframes
Read a total of nframes from device
-r
Renumber frames when saving such that 0 is first saved frame
-c
Reorder frames before saving in chronological order
-T
True CCD coloring (no interpolation)
-t
Save/output images in tiff format (Not yet supported)

(Default is pgm for monochrome camera, ppm for color)

-p
Save/output images in ppm format

(Default is pgm for monochrome camera, ppm for color)

-g
Save/output images in pgm format

(Default is pgm for monochrome camera, ppm for color)

-i filename
Write long query of device to filename
-o filename
Save image(images) to filename(filename####)

(Default is to send images to STDOUT.)

 

EXAMPLES

To list all generic SCSI devices on the system with vendor and product information, use:

        kmc_read -L

This command is typically necessary to determine which generic SCSI device has been assigned to the KMC.

To show settings of a KMC (frame size, frame rate, shutter speed, total number of frames in memory, trigger mode, etc.), use:

        kmc_read -Q /dev/sga 

The generic scsi device, "/dev/sga" here, must match that returned by "kmc_read -L" above.

To read frame 25 from a monochrome KMC attached to device /dev/sga and write the image in pgm format to a file called "image.pgm", use:

        kmc_read -f 25 -o image.pgm /dev/sga

To read frame 25 from a KMC attached to device /dev/sga and display the image using the display utility (requires ImageMagick), use:

        kmc_read -f 25 /dev/sga | display

To read frames 100 through 1570 from a KMC attached to device /dev/sga and save them to files named "image0100.pgm", ..., "image1570.pgm", use:

        kmc_read -s 100 -e 1570 -o image /dev/sga 

 

CAMERA FRAME NUMBERING

The default frame numbering is "Camera Frame Numbering". Frame numbering is dependent upon whether the camera trigger is set to "Start", "Center", or "Stop". In all cases, the trigger frame is frame "0".  

Start Triggering

Start triggering indicates that the camera begins acquiring frames when the trigger is given and continues acquiring until the memory is full. The first frame (the trigger frame) is numbered 0, the second frame is 1, ..., the last frame is (N-1).

------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | 1 |                  ...                     | (N-1) |
------------------------------------------------------------

 

Center Triggering

The trigger frame is the middle-most frame in "Center Triggering". The next frame is "1", ..., the last frame stored is (N/2)-1. Frame (N/2) is chronologically the first frame acquired, and frame (N-1) is the frame immediately preceeding the trigger frame.
------------------------------------------------------------
| (N/2) |    ...    | (N-1) | 0 | 1 |     ...    | (N/2)-1 |
------------------------------------------------------------

 

End Triggering

In "End Trigger" mode, the chronological first frame is "1", the next frame is "2", ..., the second to last frame is (N-1), and the last frame is the trigger frame, indexed "0".
------------------------------------------------------------
| 1 | 2 |                  ...                 | (N-1) | 0 |
------------------------------------------------------------

 

CHRONOLOGICAL FRAME NUMBERING

In certain circumstances, the precise frame at which the camera was triggered is not important. In these circumstances, it may be more convenient to use "Chronological Frame Numbering". Frames are specified in chronological order, "0" being the frame number of the first frame acquired and (N-1) being the number of the last frame acquired, independent of the trigger mode of the camera. When the frames are saved to files, the file names will be indexed by the chronological frame number, unless the renumber flag -r is used in which case the first frame saved is indexed as "0", the second as "1", etc.

 

NOTE

A KMC must be in "Live" mode to properly transfer images on the SCSI bus. Transfers done in "Playback" mode tend to be unreliable.
   

NOTE ABOUT COLOR KMC's

Color KMC's have 512x480 CCD elements, the same as with monochrome KMC's. Each element has a single color(red, green, or blue). The default format for color images is an XxY ppm(eg. 512x480). The default mode for transfering color images is to interpolate the missing pixels for each color space. (Note that currently the interpolation routine used is different from that used by Kodak in their Windows software.) Interpolation can be turn off with the -T flag.


   

AUTHOR

Dan Mueth - d-mueth@uchicago.edu


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
EXAMPLES
CAMERA FRAME NUMBERING
Start Triggering
Center Triggering
End Triggering
CHRONOLOGICAL FRAME NUMBERING
NOTE
NOTE ABOUT COLOR KMC's
AUTHOR

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 16:55:35 GMT, August 23, 1999