Always have errors for image acquisition after 4 images acquired.

I am using matlab to obtain images from 4 JAI CCD cameras(1 color, 2 mono, 1 uv).

Matlab code sets exposure time to cameras with pulse generation and grab images by external trigger.

However, for unknown reasons, after grabbing images 4 times, errors came up.

I could find out that there was no trigger event log.

Please provide me a piece of advice to solve this problem. Thank you inadvance.

Here is the matlab code:

clc; clear all; close all;

prompt = {'Exposure_color (ms):','Exposure_UV (ms):'...
    ,'Exposure_BW1 (ms):','Exposure_BW2 (ms):'};
title = 'Exposure time';
dims = [1 35];
definput = {'25','12','5','5'};
answer = inputdlg(prompt,title,dims,definput);

v_bw1 = videoinput('gige',3,'Mono8'); %ch.1~4
v_uv = videoinput('gige',4,'Mono8'); 
v_color = videoinput('gige',1,'BayerRG8');
v_bw2 = videoinput('gige',2,'Mono8');
s1 = v_bw1.Source;
s2 = v_uv.Source;
s3 = v_color.Source;
v_color.ReturnedColorspace = 'grayscale';

s4 = v_bw2.Source;                                                                      

% Specify total number of frames to be acquired
% One frame is acquired for each external signal pulse.

numFrames = 1;  % Enter the number of frame

% BW1
s1.PulseGeneratorSelector = 'PulseGenerator1';
s1.PulseGeneratorClearActivation = 'RisingEdge';
s1.PulseGeneratorClearInverter = 'False';
s1.PulseGeneratorClearSource = 'Line5';
s1.PulseGeneratorClock = 0.446428571428571;
%s1.PulseGeneratorFrequency = 0.500000080000013;
% s1.PulseGeneratorLengthMs = 1.1*str2num(answer{3});
s1.PulseGeneratorLengthMs = 2000;
s1.PulseGeneratorStartPoint = 1;
s1.PulseGeneratorEndPointMs = str2num(answer{3});   % exposure time (ms)

% UV
s2.PulseGeneratorSelector = 'PulseGenerator1';
s2.PulseGeneratorClearActivation = 'RisingEdge';
s2.PulseGeneratorClearInverter = 'False';
s2.PulseGeneratorClearSource = 'Line5';
s2.PulseGeneratorClock = 0.446428571428571;
%s2.PulseGeneratorFrequency = 0.500000080000013;
% s2.PulseGeneratorLengthMs = 1.1*str2num(answer{2});
s2.PulseGeneratorLengthMs = 2000;
s2.PulseGeneratorStartPoint = 1;
s2.PulseGeneratorEndPointMs = str2num(answer{2});   % exposure time (ms)
% Color
s3.PulseGeneratorSelector = 'PulseGenerator1';
s3.PulseGeneratorClearActivation = 'RisingEdge';
s3.PulseGeneratorClearInverter = 'False';
s3.PulseGeneratorClearSource = 'Line5';
s3.PulseGeneratorClock = 0.446428571428571;
%s3.PulseGeneratorFrequency = 0.500000080000013;
%s3.PulseGeneratorLengthMs = 1.1*str2num(answer{1});
s3.PulseGeneratorLengthMs = 2000;
s3.PulseGeneratorStartPoint = 1;
s3.PulseGeneratorEndPointMs = str2num(answer{1});   % exposure time (ms)

% BW2
s4.PulseGeneratorSelector = 'PulseGenerator1';
s4.PulseGeneratorClearActivation = 'RisingEdge';
s4.PulseGeneratorClearInverter = 'False';
s4.PulseGeneratorClearSource = 'Line5';
s4.PulseGeneratorClock = 0.446428571428571;
%s4.PulseGeneratorFrequency = 0.500000080000013;
% s4.PulseGeneratorLengthMs = 1.1*str2num(answer{4});
s4.PulseGeneratorLengthMs = 2000;
s4.PulseGeneratorStartPoint = 1;
s4.PulseGeneratorEndPointMs = str2num(answer{4});   % exposure time (ms)


v_bw1.FramesPerTrigger = 1;
v_uv.FramesPerTrigger = 1;
v_color.FramesPerTrigger = 1;
v_bw2.FramesPerTrigger = 1;
v_bw1.TriggerRepeat = 0;
v_uv.TriggerRepeat = 0;
v_color.TriggerRepeat = 0;
v_bw2.TriggerRepeat = 0;

% Specify 'hardware' videoinput trigger type 
triggerconfig(v_bw1, 'hardware', 'DeviceSpecific', 'DeviceSpecific');
triggerconfig(v_uv, 'hardware', 'DeviceSpecific', 'DeviceSpecific');
triggerconfig(v_color, 'hardware', 'DeviceSpecific', 'DeviceSpecific');
triggerconfig(v_bw2, 'hardware', 'DeviceSpecific', 'DeviceSpecific');
s1.TriggerSelector = 'FrameStart';
s2.TriggerSelector = 'FrameStart';
s3.TriggerSelector = 'FrameStart';
s4.TriggerSelector = 'FrameStart';
s1.TriggerSource = 'PulseGenerator1';
s2.TriggerSource = 'PulseGenerator1';
s3.TriggerSource = 'PulseGenerator1';
s4.TriggerSource = 'PulseGenerator1';
s1.TriggerActivation = 'RisingEdge';
s2.TriggerActivation = 'RisingEdge';
s3.TriggerActivation = 'RisingEdge';
s4.TriggerActivation = 'RisingEdge';
s1.TriggerMode = 'on';
s2.TriggerMode = 'on';
s3.TriggerMode = 'on';
s4.TriggerMode = 'on';

s1.GainRaw = 336;
s2.GainRaw = 336;
s3.GainRaw = 100;
s4.GainRaw = 336;



% For exposure time control configure a TriggerWidth exposure mode
s1.ExposureMode = 'TriggerWidth';
s2.ExposureMode = 'TriggerWidth';
s3.ExposureMode = 'TriggerWidth';
s4.ExposureMode = 'TriggerWidth';

answer = questdlg('Take a shot?','Take a shot','Shot','No','Shot');% Start hardware-triggered buffered continuous acquisition, and wait for 
% acquisition to complete

start([v_bw1 v_uv v_color v_bw2])
wait([v_bw1 v_uv v_color v_bw2], 100)
% wait(v_uv, 5)
% wait(v_bw1, 5)
% wait(v_bw2, 5)


% Eventlog 

elog_color = v_color.EventLog;
elog_uv = v_uv.EventLog;
elog_bw1 = v_bw1.EventLog;
elog_bw2 = v_bw2.EventLog;

elog_bw1(1).Data
elog_uv(1).Data
elog_color(1).Data
elog_bw2(1).Data

elog_bw1(2).Data
elog_uv(2).Data
elog_color(2).Data
elog_bw2(2).Data

fn_color=mat2str(elog_color(2).Data.AbsTime);
fn_uv=mat2str(elog_uv(2).Data.AbsTime);
fn_bw1=mat2str(elog_bw1(2).Data.AbsTime);
fn_bw2=mat2str(elog_bw2(2).Data.AbsTime);


% Transfer acquired frames and timestamps from acquisition input buffer 
% into workspace
data_color = getdata(v_color, v_color.FramesAvailable);
data_uv = getdata(v_uv, v_uv.FramesAvailable);
data_bw1 = getdata(v_bw1, v_bw1.FramesAvailable);
data_bw2 = getdata(v_bw2, v_bw2.FramesAvailable);

vid_bw1Image=imrotate(data_bw1,-90);   % image processing
vid_bw2Image=imrotate(data_bw2,90);
vid_colorImage=imrotate(data_color,-90);
vid_uvImage=imrotate(data_uv,90);
% vid_colorImage = imadjust(vid_colorImage,[0 0 0;0.706 1 0.706],[]);
vid_colorImage=demosaic(vid_colorImage, 'grbg');

DIRNAME1 = datestr(now,'yyyymmdd');    % create folders
DIRNAME2 = datestr(now,'HHMMSS');

mkdir(DIRNAME1, DIRNAME2);

pathname = ['C:\Users\admin\Documents\gyujin\code','\',DIRNAME1,'\',DIRNAME2,'\'];

mkdir(pathname);


imwrite(vid_bw1Image,[pathname,fn_bw1,'bw1.jpg']); % save images
imwrite(vid_bw2Image,[pathname,fn_bw2, 'bw2.jpg']);
imwrite(vid_uvImage,[pathname,fn_uv,'uv.jpg']);
imwrite(vid_colorImage,[pathname,fn_color,'color.jpg']);



subplot(2,2,1);
imshow(vid_bw1Image);
subplot(2,2,2);
imshow(vid_bw2Image);
subplot(2,2,3);
imshow(vid_colorImage);
subplot(2,2,4);
imshow(vid_uvImage);

delete(v_color);
delete(v_uv);
delete(v_bw1);
delete(v_bw2);

clear v_color;
clear v_uv;
clear v_bw1;
clear v_bw2;

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Your best bet might be to open a support ticket with the MATLAB tech support. Very few of us have 4 cameras to reproduce your problem. That, plus the fact that you're not giving us the complete error message, or even a part of it, make it hard for us to help you.

[Walter Roberson]

I have five cameras:

1. one built in (different support package, different interface); IMAQ Toolbox Generic OS support package
2. one really old and always dodgy USB webcam monochrome, that only half works on Mac (camera needs an XP driver); USB Webcam support package (not compatible with IMAQ)
3. one newer (comparatively) USB webcam that can be made to mostly work, even though the company says it was never supported on Mac; USB Webcam support package (not compatible with IMAQ)
4. one Apple webcam that looks like it used to be decent, but it is Firewire 400; IMAQ IEEE 1394 support package (compatible with Generic OS support package)
5. one video camera for Apple is around somewhere; I think it is Firewire 400. If I recall correctly this is strictly a video camera, with no controls for still images

No gige cameras here at all.

[Image Analyst]

Well, yeah, I have dozens, but normally only 1 or 2 hooked up to my computer at any one time.

[Jungkeuk Park]

I can't give exact error message since there is simply no data grabbed by the program and I found that there are event logs for start and stop event but nothing for the trigger event.

You can refer the following screenshot which contains the error message and value's of variables. You can easily notice that data arrays are empty( "[ ]" ) and event logs(elog~) are only 1x2 struct arrays.

I coudln't find the reason why cameras are not trrigered after exact 4 shoots. Are these related to packet size or other data networking or memory settings?

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

You're doing

vid_colorimage = imadjust(vid_colorimage, [0, 0, ...................................

however imadjust only accepts a gray scale image, not a color image.

Cast to gray scale if you want to use imadjust(). There is an output property of your video object, ReturnedColorSpace, that you can set to 'grayscale'. Refer to documentation for ReturnedColorSpace if you want to do that.

Or else just don't use imadjust() at all.