MERLIC Image Source Manager (ISM)

The Image Source Manager enables you to configure image sources independently from your MERLIC Vision Apps. The configured image sources are not stored in the MVApp. Therefore, you can reuse your image source configurations easily for other MVApps. If you want to use a camera device with the same camera configuration in multiple MVApps, you have to adjust the configuration only once. You can also use one and the same MVApp with different image configurations without adjusting the MVApp itself.

It is also possible to connect to the Image Source Manager on a remote system and configure the image sources on the remote system. This also facilitates the deployment of an MVApp from the development system to the final system for productive use because the image source for productive use can be selected and configured independently via a remote connection to the Image Source Manager of the productive system and the MVApp itself can be moved without any adjustments.

The Image Source Manager provides a graphical user interface for the configuration of the image sources. It is part of the MERLIC RTE Setup represented by the tab "Image Sources". It allows you to select the image source and to configure camera parameters with a live image view. In addition, the Image Source Manager also allows the use and configuration of peripheral devices such as lighting or lens controllers.

For the integration of an image source into an MVApp, the MERLIC tool Image Source is required. It enables you to select a configured image source for your application. When running the MVApp, the Image Source Manager first acquires an image from each image source in the active configuration. The "Image Source" tool receives the respective image from the Image Source Manager which will then be used for the iteration of the MVApp's Tool Flow.

Requirements

The configuration options of the Image Source Manager in the "Image Sources" tab are only available if either the MERLIC Creator or the process integration mode of MERLIC, i.e., MERLIC RTE, is currently running. Otherwise, no image source can be configured because no service for the image source configuration is available. The MERLIC Creator or MERLIC RTE must be running on the system that is connected, e.g., for the configuration on your local system, MERLIC Creator or MERLIC RTE must be running on the local system. In addition, the "Image Sources" tab can be used for only one applications at the same time, either MERLIC Creator or MERLIC RTE.

Supported Image Acquisition Interfaces

MERLIC offers hardware independence by supporting image acquisition interfaces of the latest industry standards GigE Vision, GenICam GenTL, and USB3 Vision. For more information about the respective system requirements, see the topic Supported Image Acquisition Interfaces.

Workflow

The following topics describe the workflow of how to configure image sources via the graphical user interface of the Image Source Manager, i.e., via the "Image Sources" tab of the MERLIC RTE Setup and how to integrate the acquired images of a configured image source such as a camera device or image file directory into an MVApp.