Does Image Acquisition Toolbox support the FLIR (Point Grey) Blackfly S model camera?

I have a USB3 Version of model Blackfly S camera from FLIR (Point Grey). The camera is supported by the manufacturer-provided Spinnaker SDK libraries.

Is this camera model supported by Image Acquisition Toolbox?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

MATLAB R2022b and Later

As of MATLAB R2022b, the Spinnaker SDK is no longer supported in MATLAB. Instead, please see this MATLAB Answers post on how to use your camera with the GenTL interface. 

MATLAB R2018b

As of MATLAB R2018b, a custom adaptor for Spinnaker is available for Image Acquisition Toolbox. Refer to instructions from the File Exchange entry on FLIR Spinnaker support by Image Acquisition Toolbox. 

The 'pointgrey' adaptor included with 

Image Acquisition Toolbox Support Package for Point Grey Hardware

 currently supports only the FLIR (Point Grey) camera models supported by the vendor's "FlyCapture SDK" libraries.

For releases prior to MATLAB R2018b

"Blackfly S" camera models are NOT supported by the 'pointgrey' adaptor. The manufacturer supports "Blackfly S" camera models only via the "Spinnaker SDK" library, but not via the "FlyCapture SDK" libraries.

Refer to the MathWorks documentation on Point Grey Camera Support from Image Acquisition Toolbox and the Blackfly S USB3 page from TELEDYNE for more details. 

As a workaround, camera models supported only by the vendor's "Spinnaker SDK" libraries might be supported by other adaptors as follows:

• 'gige' adaptor, if the camera model is a GigE Vision camera (such as "Blackfly S" BFS-PGE-* models)
• 'winvideo' adaptor, by installing the DirectShow drivers provided by the manufacturer

Another workaround would be to use the equivalent FLIR (Point Grey) camera models supported by the vendor's "Fly Capture SDK" with the 'pointgrey' adaptor in MATLAB.

 

Answer 2

[Wenxuan Liang]

To add on, the solutions given by previous answers on using "winvideo" driver in the Image Acquisition Toolbox enables MATLAB to recognize and communicate with the Blackfly S camera.

To enable more advanced camera control, I found it better to use GenICam driver. Based on product information on Edmund Optics and FLIR, this Blackfly S camera uses the USB3 Vision v1.0 machine vision standard. Based on its installation guide: https://softwareservices.flir.com/BFS-U3-63S4-BD2/latest/40-Installation/Welcome.htm, it can be controlled using either Spinnaker or GenICam.

So you can go to Add-ons -> Get Hardware Support -> Image Acquisition Toolbox Support Package for GenICam Interface by MathWorks Image Acquisition Toolbox Team, and after installing it, the toolbox interface looks like this:

And you get full access to all imaging parameters to the camera.

[Andrei]

Wenxuan -- I'm curious which GenTL producer are you using?

[Wenxuan Liang]

Hi Andrei, if I understand your question correctly, the camera I used (Blackfly S BFS-U3-63S4M) use the newer Spinnaker SDK.

[Andrei]

Hi Wenxuan,

Was curious if you got your camera to work with a GenTL producer installed by the Spinnaker SDK setup program, or was it a producer from another vendor?

If you execute imaqsupport command in MATLAB, in the resulting imaqsupport.txt you'll find a GENTL section. How does that look on your machine? This is what I see on my computer after installing the latest Spinnaker version:

--------------------GENTL--------------------

GENICAM_GENTL64_PATH = C:\Program Files\FLIR Systems\Spinnaker\cti64\vs2015

Producer found = C:\Program Files\FLIR Systems\Spinnaker\cti64\vs2015\FLIR_GenTL_v140.cti

Thank you,

Andrei

[Wenxuan Liang]

Hi Andrei,

Following your steps, below is the info on my computer. This computer has worked with multiple cameras, so I selected part from the generated imaqsupport.txt and boldified the part that matches what you listed.

----------AVAILABLE HARDWARE----------

InstalledAdaptors: {'gentl' 'winvideo'}

MATLABVersion: '9.2 (R2017a)'

ToolboxName: 'Image Acquisition Toolbox'

ToolboxVersion: '5.2 (R2017a)'

----------GENTL ADAPTOR----------

Adaptor Name: gentl

Adaptor DLL: C:\ProgramData\MATLAB\SupportPackages\R2017a\toolbox\imaq\supportpackages\gentl\adaptor\win64\mwgentlimaq.dll

IMAQHWINFO:

AdaptorDllName: 'C:\ProgramData\MATLAB\SupportPackages\R2017a\toolbox\imaq\supportpackages\gentl\adaptor\win64\mwgentlimaq.dll'

AdaptorDllVersion: '5.2 (R2017a)'

AdaptorName: 'gentl'

DeviceIDs: {[1]}

DeviceInfo: [1×1 struct]

Available Devices:

Device Name: FLIR Blackfly S BFS-U3-63S4M

Device ID: 1

Device File Supported: 0

Default Format: Mono8

Supported Formats:

'Mono10Packed'

'Mono12Packed'

'Mono16'

'Mono8'

--------------------GENTL--------------------

GENICAM_GENTL64_PATH = D:\Program Files\Basler\pylon 5\Runtime\x64\;C:\BitFlow SDK 6.00\Bin64;C:\BitFlow SDK 6.30\Bin64;C:\BitFlow SDK 6.20\Bin64;C:\Program Files\Allied Vision\Vimba_2.1\Vimba1394TL\Bin\Win64;C:\Program Files\Allied Vision\Vimba_2.1\VimbaGigETL\Bin\Win64;C:\Program Files\Allied Vision\Vimba_2.1\VimbaUSBTL\Bin\Win64;C:\Program Files\Allied Vision\Vimba_2.1\VimbaCLConfigTL\Bin\Win64;D:\Program Files\FLIR Systems\Spinnaker\cti64\vs2015

Producer found = D:\Program Files\Basler\pylon 5\Runtime\x64\ProducerU3V.cti

No producers found in C:\BitFlow SDK 6.00\Bin64

No producers found in C:\BitFlow SDK 6.30\Bin64

No producers found in C:\BitFlow SDK 6.20\Bin64

Producer found = C:\Program Files\Allied Vision\Vimba_2.1\Vimba1394TL\Bin\Win64\Vimba1394TL.cti

Producer found = C:\Program Files\Allied Vision\Vimba_2.1\VimbaGigETL\Bin\Win64\VimbaGigETL.cti

Producer found = C:\Program Files\Allied Vision\Vimba_2.1\VimbaUSBTL\Bin\Win64\VimbaUSBTL.cti

Producer found = C:\Program Files\Allied Vision\Vimba_2.1\VimbaCLConfigTL\Bin\Win64\VimbaCLConfigTL.cti

Producer found = D:\Program Files\FLIR Systems\Spinnaker\cti64\vs2015\FLIR_GenTL_v140.cti