Is there a virtual / dummy IMAQ camera for LabVIEW?

Question

I am writing a LabVIEW program that captures images from a camera compatible with IMAQ GigE.

Problem: This is a collaborative project, so I only have intermittent access to the actual camera. I would like to be able to continue developing this software, even if the camera is missing.

Is there an easy / quick way to create a virtual or dummy IMAQ camera in software? Ideally, I would like a dummy camera to capture frames from AVI or a JPEG stack. Something like this should exist, I just can't find it on Google.

I am looking for something that doesn’t take much time (for example, 2 hours of effort), and this abstracts from the standard LabVIEW IMAQ interface, so that my software will not know or care about whether the dummy camera or the actual camera.

Answer 1

You can try this method using LabVIEW classes: Hardware emulation using LabVIEW classes

Answer 2

If you have an IMAQdx driver, you might consider buying a cheap USB webcam for $ 10.

Answer 3

Use the IMAQdx driver (provided that you have one), and then insert ViA Vision Express Express, and you can choose AVI or even a photo as the source.

Answer 4

Something like this: GigESim is a camera emulation software. Unfortunately, this is my own and too expensive (> $ 500) for my own needs, but others may find this link useful.

Does anyone know of a viable open source alternative?

Answer 5

There is an IP camera emulator project that emulates an IP camera using python. I have not used it myself, so I don’t know if IMAQ can use it.

Let us know if this is good for you.