Camera

Camera is a C++17 acquisition library for Basler cameras supported by the pylon SDK. It owns SDK initialization, discovery, connection state, 2D and multipart 3D grab callbacks, and producer backpressure.

Capabilities

• Discover and open pylon cameras through CameraSystem.
• Receive 2D CPylonImage frames or multipart CPylonDataContainer payloads.
• Configure Blaze, Stereo ace, and Stereo mini stream families from the connected device class.
• Use the optional Qt control widget when it is explicitly enabled with Qt 5 or Qt 6.
• Redirect module diagnostics through CameraSystem::syslog().

Requirements

• CMake 3.16 or newer and a C++17 compiler.
• A Basler pylon SDK supported by the target operating system.
• PYLON_ROOT, PYLON_DEV_DIR, or pylon_DIR when CMake cannot discover pylon automatically.
• The matching supplementary package and runtime producer for supported stereo 3D devices.
• Qt Core, Gui, and Widgets only when the optional Qt surface is enabled.

Integration

Add the module from any consumer-owned location and link its core target:

add_subdirectory(path/to/Camera/C++ Camera-build)
target_link_libraries(consumer PRIVATE Camera)

CAMERA_BUILD_QT_WIDGET defaults to OFF, so configuring the core does not search for or link Qt. To build the control widget and image converter for a Qt consumer:

set(CAMERA_BUILD_QT_WIDGET ON CACHE BOOL "Build the Camera Qt widget")
add_subdirectory(path/to/Camera/C++ Camera-build)
target_link_libraries(qt_consumer PRIVATE Camera::QtWidget)

Camera::QtWidget provides Utility/Qt/QCameraWidget.h and Utility/Qt/QtConverter.h and links the Camera core transitively. Enabling the option requires Qt Core, Gui, and Widgets; configuration fails clearly when they are unavailable.

The optional scene adapter is disabled by default. Enable it only after a neutral scene-contract target is available; the adapter converts SDK payloads without requiring the visualization renderer.

Acquisition Contract

#include "CameraSystem.h"

CameraSystem system;
Camera* camera = system.addCamera();

const auto callbackId = camera->registerGrabCallback(
    [camera](const Pylon::CPylonImage& image, std::size_t sequence) {
        if (image.IsValid()) {
            // Consume the SDK-backed image before returning the credit.
        }
        camera->ready();
    });

if (camera->open()) {
    camera->grab();
}

Grab callbacks run on an acquisition thread. Do not update GUI objects directly from a callback. For continuous acquisition, call ready() only after the consumer has finished with the current 2D or multipart frame; otherwise the next frame remains blocked. Deregister callbacks, stop acquisition, close the camera, and remove it from CameraSystem before destroying dependent consumer state.

Multipart 3D buffers remain SDK-owned for the callback duration. Consumers that retain data after the callback must create their own validated representation.

Validation

Build the core against the installed SDK on every supported platform. Stereo decoding, trigger behavior, device configuration, and runtime producers require matching physical-hardware validation; a successful library build does not establish those contracts.