C_wiz Video Subsystem (high resolution)

Some present and potential customers have indicated a desire for an integrated video capture capability. The suggested potential uses for such a capability have included:

o Radar sweep capture - many radars have an analog video out option which can be used to drive a remote monitor - or a video capture device.

o Wheelhouse monitoring.

o Engine room monitoring.

o Passenger monitoring.

o Monitoring of patrol boat boarding operations.

In response to these requirements a new C_wiz D3 (data device driver) has been developed which saves video frame grabs (as *.jpg files) from the video stream/s supplied to video devices attached to a PC. Frequency, quality and size of the video frame grabs is user definable. Location, date and time stamps are automatically embedded in each video frame grab to provide an audit trail.

To cover the maximum possible range of video devices the Frame Grabber D3 uses the Multimedia SDK (Software Development Kit) from LEAD Technologies. To quote from the SDK documentation, this allows the creation of "applications that can capture from WDM, native DirectShow including DV, Video for Windows capture devices, control DV devices, etc", in other words just about any video device that you could plug into a modern PC.

The D3 has been tested with various video devices:

o Multi-input frame grabbers - typically a PCI card with several BNC or RCA connectors that will take composite video signals from surveillance video cameras, radar etc. These sorts of devices can typically handle up to 16 composite video signals. Examples are the Euresys and FALCON lines. Appropriate to use these devices when more than 2 video signals are to be handled.

o USB TV tuners - typically a small in-line device with a RCA composite video input and a USB output. Example is the Belkin Hi-Speed USB DVD Creator. Appropriate to use these devices when 1 or 2 video signals are to be handled (any more and you will get USB contention problems). These are a cheap and effective way to add a radar sweep capture capability to C_wiz.

o USB or Firewire cameras - "webcams". There are any number of possibilities here. If you attempt to use too many you will end up with USB or Firewire contention problems.

A companion Frame Grabber Disk Manager D3 has also been developed which enables a user to ensure there is always space available on the disk drive that contains the video frame grabs by, if necessary, deleting the oldest in blocks of 1 hour.

C_wiz itself has been enhanced with a Video subsystem that allows the user to view in real-time, play or plot modes appropriate video frame grabs completely synchronized to all the other data simultaneously captured.

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Tags:

• engine
• analysis
• electronics
• computers
• video log
• software
• marine
• vessel monitoring system