Identifying Available Devices

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This example shows how to identify the available devices on your system and obtain device information.

Identifying Installed Adaptors

The imaqhwinfo function provides a structure with an InstalledAdaptors field that lists all adaptors on the current system that the toolbox can access. 

imaqInfo = imaqhwinfo

imaqInfo = 

    InstalledAdaptors: {'dcam'  'winvideo'}
        MATLABVersion: '7.1 (R14SP3)'
          ToolboxName: 'Image Acquisition Toolbox'
       ToolboxVersion: '1.9 (R14SP3)'


imaqInfo.InstalledAdaptors

ans = 

    'dcam'    'winvideo'

Obtaining Device Information

Calling imaqhwinfo with an adaptor name returns a structure that provides information on all accessible image acquisition devices. 

hwInfo = imaqhwinfo('winvideo')

hwInfo = 

       AdaptorDllName: [1x68 char]
    AdaptorDllVersion: '1.9 (R14SP3)'
          AdaptorName: 'winvideo'
            DeviceIDs: {[1]  [3]}
           DeviceInfo: [1x2 struct]


hwInfo.DeviceInfo

ans = 

1x2 struct array with fields:
    DefaultFormat
    DeviceFileSupported
    DeviceName
    DeviceID
    VideoInputConstructor
    VideoDeviceConstructor
    SupportedFormats

Information on a specific device can be obtained by simply indexing into the device information structure array.

device1 = hwInfo.DeviceInfo(1)

device1 = 

             DefaultFormat: 'RGB555_320x240'
       DeviceFileSupported: 0
                DeviceName: 'Veo PC Camera'
                  DeviceID: 1
     VideoInputConstructor: 'videoinput('winvideo', 1)'
    VideoDeviceConstructor: 'imaq.VideoDevice('winvideo', 1)'
          SupportedFormats: {1x30 cell}

The DeviceName field contains the image acquisition device name. 

device1.DeviceName

ans =

Veo PC Camera

The DeviceID field contains the image acquisition device identifier. 

device1.DeviceID

ans =

     1

The DefaultFormat field contains the image acquisition device's default video format. 

device1.DefaultFormat

ans =

RGB555_320x240

The SupportedFormats field contains a cell array of all valid video formats supported by the image acquisition device. 

device1.SupportedFormats

ans = 

  Columns 1 through 4

    'I420_128x96'    'I420_160x120'    'I420_176x144'    'I420_320x240'

  Columns 5 through 8

    'I420_352x240'    'I420_352x288'    'RGB24_128x96'    'RGB24_160x120'

  Columns 9 through 11

    'RGB24_176x144'    'RGB24_320x240'    'RGB24_352x240'

  Columns 12 through 14

    'RGB24_352x288'    'RGB555_128x96'    'RGB555_160x120'

  Columns 15 through 17

    'RGB555_176x144'    'RGB555_320x240'    'RGB555_352x240'

  Columns 18 through 21

    'RGB555_352x288'    'UYVY_128x96'    'UYVY_160x120'    'UYVY_176x144'

  Columns 22 through 25

    'YUY2_128x96'    'YUY2_160x120'    'YUY2_176x144'    'YV12_128x96'

  Columns 26 through 29

    'YV12_160x120'    'YV12_176x144'    'YV12_320x240'    'YV12_352x240'

  Column 30

    'YV12_352x288'