Camera USB

This function block connects to USB cameras attached to your computer and provides live frames for processing or visualization. Use it to select a camera, change resolution, and control when the camera is active or released.

📥 Inputs (sockets)

Activate Signal — Boolean input to enable frame retrieval. When not active, the block will hold and return the last captured frame.

Release Signal — Boolean input to stop and release the camera resource.

📤 Outputs (sockets)

Camera Frame — Live frame image from the selected USB camera.

🕹️ Controls

Scan Connected USB Cameras — Button to discover and list USB cameras attached to the system.

Select USB Camera — Dropdown to pick which connected camera to use.

Camera Resolution — Dropdown to choose a target capture resolution supported by the camera.

Current Resolution — Read-only label that shows the resolution currently used by the camera.

Open Advanced Setting — Button that opens the camera vendor settings window (when available on the platform).

🎯 Key features

• Easy discovery and selection of multiple USB cameras.

• On-the-fly resolution selection with visible current resolution.

• Activate/release control to free camera for other apps.

• Protection against corrupted or blank frames with automatic retries.

• Works well as a live image source for downstream processing or saving workflows.

📝 How to use

1. Click the Scan Connected USB Cameras button to populate the camera list.

2. Choose the desired camera from Select USB Camera.

3. Optionally change Camera Resolution and verify the Current Resolution label.

4. Send Activate Signal (true) to start receiving frames on Camera Frame.

5. When finished, send Release Signal (true) to free the camera resource.

⚙️ What happens when it runs

When activated, the block captures the latest frame from the selected USB camera and outputs it through Camera Frame. If the camera fails or frames appear blank, the block will attempt to recover and will inform you via the message area and status indicators.

💡 Tips and Tricks

• Preview live output by connecting Camera Frame to the Show Image block to inspect frames and open the image viewer.

• Reduce workload before heavy AI blocks by adding an Image Resizer or Image Resize block to downscale frames.

• Improve visual quality for detection tasks by inserting Adjust Colors, Auto Contrast, or Denoising before AI detectors.

• Combine with Image ROI Select to crop a specific region and speed up downstream detectors like Object Detection or Mask Detection.

• Save important frames using Image Logger or record continuous footage with Record Video.

• For text extraction workflows, feed frames into OCR or OCR (EasyOCR) after ensuring clear focus and contrast.

• Use Blur or Image Threshold to preprocess noisy scenes before Find Object or other template-based detectors.

• If you plan to run cloud or remote logging, pair the camera source with Image Logger or CSV Export to store metadata along with frames.

🛠️ Troubleshooting

• No cameras listed: Ensure the camera is connected and powered. Try reconnecting the USB cable or switching ports, then press Scan Connected USB Cameras again.

• Camera busy or cannot start: Close other applications that may be using the camera and try releasing then re-scanning.

• Blank or corrupted frames: Try selecting a different resolution via Camera Resolution or press the scan button to restart the camera. If the problem persists, unplug and replug the camera.

• Advanced settings not available: Platform limitations may prevent showing vendor settings; check platform-specific notes or use the camera's external utility.

If problems persist, try combining the camera with a simple preview using Show Image to isolate whether the issue is hardware or a downstream processing block.