DCAM
DCAM (also often referred to as IIDC) stands for “1394-based Digital Camera Specification” and defines the behavior of cameras that output uncompressed image data without audio.
The standard was defined by the 1394 Trade Association . The working group responsible for this is the IIDC (Instrumentation and Industrial Control Working Group). The published and therefore relevant core specifications are designated as follows:
- 2003017 - IIDC 1394-based Digital Camera Specification Ver.1.31
- 1999023 - IIDC 1394-based Digital Camera Specification Version 1.30
- 1998019 - 1394-based Digital Camera Specification ver. 1.20
- August 9, 1996 - 1394-based Digital Camera Specification ver 1.04 (no longer listed)
In addition, there are several documents that have to be considered an accessory, such as test specifications.
The DCAM standard is only supported by devices that offer a FireWire (IEEE-1394) interface. Typically this will be an industrial grade FireWire camera . Support for the comparable USB is not provided.
The common operating systems Windows , Mac OS X and Linux all offer individual support for possible application developers. In the embedded area, National Instruments in particular is a big advocate and continues to offer a package for the PC with its in-house algorithm and visualization program LabView , which also integrates the DCAM interface for data acquisition in addition to many other things. Hobby astronomers now also use the interface, for example with the Astro IIDC program for OSX, and thus achieve remarkable results with relatively modest image sensors and moderate telescopes.