Fire-i API™ DirectShow IIDC 1394 digital cameras Development Toolkit, v3.74

The Fire-i API™ SDK provides developers with all the tools they need in order to develop and debug professional applications for IIDC 1394 Digital Cameras. Fire-i API™ includes in one product both MS Stack driver and ubCore™ 1394 driver based SDKs, allowing the developer to choose the most appropriate tools for his project. Same licensing scheme is valid in both environments.

The included software contains :

• IIDC 1394 Camera Driver: WDM kernel streaming camera driver. This driver provides access to IIDC cameras connected to the system through any generic third party DirectShow based application. The driver also provides WIA and TWAIN support for Microsoft Windows XP and later as well as FULL integration of the device with the operating system. This driver is available on top of both the ubCore drivers as well as the MS 1394 driver stack
• Fire-i™ DLL: User mode C style DLL that directly communicates with the 1394 adapter drivers and provides a simple and robust interface that allows full control and preview of IIDC 1394 digital cameras connected to the adapter. A variety of source samples as well as accompanying documentation for the DLL is provided with Fire-i API™.
• Fire-i™: Application that allows full camera enumeration, control and preview. The application uses DirectShow in order to communicate with the WDM camera driver and uses the driver accompanying codecs in order to process and display the camera data. The FULL source code of the Fire-i™ application is included in Fire-i API™
• ubCore™: Low level 1394 adapter drivers that provide the interface to all 1394a and 1394b devices. This interface is being used directly by the Fire-i™ DLL described above. The 1394 adapter drivers are bus manager and power management capable and come with a multitude of specific 1394 device drivers built on top of them
• Codecs: DirectShow and Video For Windows codecs are provided and installed along with the WDM camera drivers. The codecs provide an interface to transform camera transmitted data into various displayable image formats. Conversion of RAW Bayer camera images using various different algorithms is also supported.
• TCP Streaming Filter: DirectShow filter that can be used in order to directly stream compressed real time camera data over a socket connection
• Object Oriented Camera Class: Fire-i™ API provides both a C++ compatible as well as a .net compatible object oriented class that allows camera enumeration control and preview in just a few lines of code. The FULL source code for both classes is available as a source sample
• Detailed documentation and samples: Fire-i™ API comes with a detailed documentation and a big variety of samples.  The complete source code of Fire-i software is even included to easy and simplify development time substantially.

Fire-i API™ Key Features:

• IIDC 1.31 compliant, support for IIDC 1.32 draft features.
• DirectShow based drivers, WIA compatible.
• Payload sharing between several computers.
• Full user-configurable 16 bits support.
• Full set of functions for display and storage of frames and live video in any encoding format.
• TCP streaming in less than 5 lines of code.
• Support for control by absolute values.
• Support of any format (Format_7).
• Multilanguage support via open source .NET Wrapper.
• Software Multi-DMA isochronous channel functionality, eliminates limitations of number of cameras that can operate in the same adapter. Download a white paper regarding Multi-DMA feature, from here.
• Support for large isochronous packets on 1394b cameras. Read more details here.

Unibrain's Fire-i™ drivers are compatible with:
Note:  In order for Labview to support WDM drivers (and our drivers), a separate SDK (IVision) has to be installed. For more information, visit: http://www.hytekautomation.com/Products/IVision.html

Supported Cameras

• Generic Driver for all IIDC 1.31 compliant models.
• Specific drivers for industrial models of Unibrain, AVT, Basler, Baumer, Cyberoptics, Hamamatsu, IMI-Tech, ISG, Hitachi, JVC, MicroPix, PixeLink, PointGrey, Sony, Teli, Victor etc.

Operating Systems Support:

Hardware Supported:

Fire-i API™ operates with Unibrain’s or any third party 1394a or 1394b OHCI PCI/PCMCIA compliant adapter, or any Desktop/Portable PC with built-in firewire support.

For non-Unibrain cameras, permanent operation requires the use of a Product Key or a Hardware License hosted in a Unibrain adapter.

Fire-i API™ Package Contents (order part number: 1120)

• Fire-i™ WDM camera drivers.
• Fire-i API™ Header and Lib files.
• Fire-i™ application (also available as a separate product) to control, display and capture any compliant camera.
• Great variety of source samples, including full source code of Fire-i™ application.
• Extensive HTML documentation.
• Two development licenses.
• Three months of free development support.

For further information about licensing, please contact us: sales@unibrain.com