Epiphan frame grabber

Supported hardware devices

• Recommended model for VGA and DVI capture: DVI2USB 3.0. The basic VGA2USB model is not suitable for most applications, because it provides interlaced output at a very low frame rate.
• This device is not compatible with Epiphan AV.io frame grabbers. If using one of these devices, use the Microsoft Media Foundation compatible imaging device or Any OpenCV compatible capture device imaging devices to connect to the frame grabber.
• Link to manufacturer's website: http://www.epiphan.com/.

Supported platforms

• Windows 32 bits
• Windows 64 bits
• Windows XP embedded 32 bits
• macOS
• Linux

The device manufacturer supports additional platforms. On request, Plus toolkit will be extended to support this device on other platforms, too.

Installation

Need to install the drivers and software from VGA2USB-LR download.

Device configuration settings

• 
  Type = "Epiphan"
  
• 
  AcquisitionRate
  

  Default = "30"
• 
  SerialNumber it is an optional parameter to set the ID of the preferred a frame grabber device (if multiple devices are connected). SerialNumber is kept for backward compatibility only. Serial number or other address should be specified in the GrabberLocation attribute.
• 
  ClipRectangleOrigin and ClipRectangleSize define a screen region to capture information from, the clip rectangle width has to be typically a mulitple of 4 (e.g., ClipRectangleOrigin ="20 40" ClipRectangleSize ="512 512" ). If the ClipRectangleSize ="0 0" then the values are ignored and the whole frame is captured.
  

  Default = "0 0"
• 
  GrabberLocation it is used to choose a specific epiphan device (in the format local:[SERIAL], net:[ADDRESS[:PORT]], sn:SERIAL, id:INDEX). If nothing is specified then the auto-detection is attempted.
  

  Default = "NULL"
• 
  RotationMode it is used to configure the rotation parameter of the captured images. Options are None, Left90, Right90, 180
  

  Default = " "
• 
  ScaleMode it is used to configure the scaling parameter of the captured images. Options are NearestNeighbor, WeightedAverage, FastBilinear, Bilinear, Bicubic, Experimental, Point, Area, BicubLin, Sinc, Lanczos, Spline, Hardware
  

  Default = " "
• 
  DataSources Exactly one DataSource child element is required.
  
  • 
    DataSource
    
    • 
      PortUsImageOrientation
      
    • 
      ImageType. Color image acquisition is supported by setting the imaging device's common attribute ImageType="RGB_COLOR" as shown in the Epiphan Color Video Capture example.
      

      Default = "BRIGHTNESS"
    • 
      BufferSize
      

      Default = "150"
    • 
      AveragedItemsForFiltering
      

      Default = "20"
    • 
      ClipRectangleOrigin Software clipping, applied on top of the hardware clipping region.
      

      Default = "0 0 0"
    • 
      ClipRectangleSize Software clipping, applied on top of the hardware clipping region.
      

      Default = "0 0 0"

Example configuration file PlusDeviceSet_Server_EpiphanVideoCapture.xml

 <PlusConfiguration version="2.1">

  <DataCollection StartupDelaySec="1.0" >
    <DeviceSet 
      Name="PlusServer: Epiphan video capture device"
      Description="Broadcasting acquired video through OpenIGTLink"
    />
    <Device
      Id="VideoDevice" 
      Type="Epiphan" >
      <DataSources>
        <DataSource Type="Video" Id="Video" PortUsImageOrientation="MF"  />
      </DataSources>      
      <OutputChannels>
        <OutputChannel Id="VideoStream" VideoDataSourceId="Video" />
      </OutputChannels>
    </Device>
    <Device
      Id="CaptureDevice"
      Type="VirtualCapture"
      BaseFilename="RecordingTest.igs.mha"
      EnableCapturingOnStart="FALSE" >
      <InputChannels>
        <InputChannel Id="VideoStream" />
      </InputChannels>
    </Device>
  </DataCollection>

  <CoordinateDefinitions>
    <Transform From="Image" To="Reference"
      Matrix="
        0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
        0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0
        0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0        
        0 0 0 1" />
  </CoordinateDefinitions>
  
  <PlusOpenIGTLinkServer 
    MaxNumberOfIgtlMessagesToSend="1" 
    MaxTimeSpentWithProcessingMs="50" 
    ListeningPort="18944" 
    SendValidTransformsOnly="true" 
    OutputChannelId="VideoStream" > 
    <DefaultClientInfo> 
      <MessageTypes> 
        <Message Type="IMAGE" />
      </MessageTypes>
      <ImageNames>
        <Image Name="Image" EmbeddedTransformToFrame="Reference" />
      </ImageNames>
    </DefaultClientInfo>
  </PlusOpenIGTLinkServer>

</PlusConfiguration>

Epiphan Color Video Capture Example configuration file PlusDeviceSet_Server_EpiphanColorVideoCapture.xml

 <PlusConfiguration version="2.1">

  <DataCollection StartupDelaySec="1.0" >
    <DeviceSet 
      Name="PlusServer: Epiphan video capture device - color"
      Description="Broadcasting acquired video through OpenIGTLink"
    />
    <Device
      Id="VideoDevice" 
      Type="Epiphan" >
      <DataSources>
        <DataSource Type="Video" Id="Video" PortUsImageOrientation="MF"  ImageType="RGB_COLOR" />
      </DataSources>      
      <OutputChannels>
        <OutputChannel Id="VideoStream" VideoDataSourceId="Video" />
      </OutputChannels>
    </Device>
    <Device
      Id="CaptureDevice"
      Type="VirtualCapture"
      BaseFilename="RecordingTest.igs.mha"
      EnableCapturingOnStart="FALSE" >
      <InputChannels>
        <InputChannel Id="VideoStream" />
      </InputChannels>
    </Device>
  </DataCollection>

  <CoordinateDefinitions>
    <Transform From="Image" To="Reference"
      Matrix="
        0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
        0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0
        0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0        
        0 0 0 1" />
  </CoordinateDefinitions>
  
  <PlusOpenIGTLinkServer 
    MaxNumberOfIgtlMessagesToSend="1" 
    MaxTimeSpentWithProcessingMs="50" 
    ListeningPort="18944" 
    SendValidTransformsOnly="true" 
    OutputChannelId="VideoStream" > 
    <DefaultClientInfo> 
      <MessageTypes> 
        <Message Type="IMAGE" />
      </MessageTypes>
      <ImageNames>
        <Image Name="Image" EmbeddedTransformToFrame="Reference" />
      </ImageNames>
    </DefaultClientInfo>
  </PlusOpenIGTLinkServer>

</PlusConfiguration>