Get Started with Image Acquisition Explorer
The basic workflow of using the Image Acquisition Explorer is to preview, configure, acquire, and save image data. For information on opening the app or the parts of the app, see Image Acquisition Explorer Overview.
For a walkthrough of the Image Acquisition Explorer app, play the following video.

This video demonstrates the features of the Image Acquisition Explorer app. This app ships with the Image Acquisition Toolbox, starting in the R-2022 A release of MATLAB. You can launch this app from the App section of the MATLAB tool strip, under the Image Processing and Computer Vision area.
You can use the Image Acquisition Explorer app to export, configure, and acquire image data from cameras and frame grabbers. After you launch the Image Acquisition Explorer app, you can view all the available cameras in the app's launch page. This example uses a FLIR AX5 thermal camera.
After you select a device, the app connects to the camera and displays a live preview by default. Notice that this particular device is currently streaming with MONO8 video format and is acquiring intensity images. For this device, the app uses grayscale as the default color space and gray as the default color map.
Since this is a thermal camera, different gray levels in this grayscale image represent different temperatures. Higher pixel values represent warmer regions and lower pixel values represent cooler regions in the image. This is visualized by the color bar to the right of the image.
By default, the color map limits are set to auto with an option to customize the limits. The default color map for grayscale data is gray, but you can colorize the image by choosing a different color map that best suits your application.
If you look at the panel on the right-hand side, the Region of Interest section shows the current width and height settings on the image and also allows you to adjust the ROI. To make an ROI selection, first, click on Select ROI. Then you can simply make a selection interactively with your cursor in the preview space, or you can enter the exact pixel values in the ROI panel and click Apply.
You can exit the ROI selection mode by clicking Cancel. The section below ROI is the Device Property section where you can view and configure camera specific properties.
Next, you can move to the app's toolstrip to look at the workflows for acquiring images or video from this camera device. First, specify where to save the acquired data. You can log the data to the MATLAB workspace by default or log data to a file on disk.
For logging to file, you can specify a file name in the toolstrip and set the file location and other configuration settings from the Configure icon. This example saves the image as a JPEG file and leaves the file configuration settings as its default values.
Capture the snapshot by clicking on Capture. This captures an image snapshot and saves it to file. You can see it in the File Directory.
Now, to record a video, switch to log data to Matlab Workspace. The record section contains four workflows for recording video in the app. One, you can record a finite number of frames. Two, you can specify a finite duration for recording by selecting the time in seconds to record.
Three, you can record continuously until recording is stopped manually. Or, four, you can record from the hardware trigger. The hardware trigger option is enabled in the app's toolstrip only if the device supports hardware-triggered acquisition. When selected, a panel appears on the right, where you can configure device trigger properties.
For this example, acquire finite frames by selecting the option in the toolstrip and then pressing the Record button. When the recording is complete, the app saves the data to the MATLAB Workspace.
There are a few other features in the app. You can launch other MATLAB apps to visualize and analyze acquired data from the toolstrip of this app. For example, click Video Viewer to launch the video viewer app with the last-recorded video data.
You can also generate MATLAB code that represents what the app does for acquiring snapshot and record. Click Generate Snapshot script under Export to open the MATLAB Editor and display a live script with the code for capturing a snapshot. You can learn more about this app in the Image Acquisition Toolbox documentation.
After opening the Image Acquisition Explorer app, decide which device you want to work with. The image acquisition devices currently connected to your computer are shown. If you do not see your device, make sure you have the appropriate Image Acquisition Toolbox™ support package installed. For a list of supported hardware and their respective support packages, see Image Acquisition Toolbox Supported Hardware. If your device is not connected yet, plug it in to your computer and refresh the list of hardware in the app.
Choose the format to work with by selecting an option from Video Format in the Configure Format section of the app toolstrip. The formats might correspond to the different resolutions and color spaces that your device supports, or to different video standards or camera configurations. This information comes from your device adaptor.
If your device supports camera files, the Select Camera File button is available instead of Video Format.
Look at the preview in the app to check that the device is working and the image is what you expect. If Preview is Off, you can toggle the switch to On.
If necessary, you can physically adjust the device to achieve the desired image area. Optionally, you can define the acquisition region by using the settings in the ROI Position panel next to the preview.
Set any general or device-specific parameters from the Device Properties panel or use the default settings. The specific list of properties that appear depends on your selected device. You can preview the property changes as you update them.
Choose your logging mode, which determines whether you save the acquisition data as a file or as a workspace variable. Select either the File or Workspace Variable option in the Logging section of the app toolstrip. Specify the file name or workspace variable name.
If you select File, you can click the configuration icon next to the file name for additional settings, including file location to save to and file format to save as.
Decide whether you want to capture a snapshot of a single frame or record a video of multiple frames.
If you want to immediately capture a single frame, click the Capture button in the Snapshot section of the app toolstrip. The image data is saved as an image file or workspace variable, depending on your prior selection.
If you want to record a video or acquire a sequence of multiple frames, you can select a recording mode of Finite or Continuous in the Record section of the app toolstrip. If your device supports hardware triggered acquisition, you also have the Hardware Trigger option available. For finite recording, specify the number of frames or seconds to record for and click the Record button. For continuous recording, you can start by clicking the Record button. It becomes a Stop button, which you can click to end recording. The recorded data is saved as a video file or workspace variable, depending on your prior selection.
You can generate a MATLAB® live script that includes the device and acquisition configurations that you currently have in the app. Click the Export button in the app toolstrip to select
Generate Snapshot Script
orGenerate Record Script
. Both these options create and open a live script that contains code for the current device configuration, as specified in the Configure Format section, and code for saving data as a file or workspace variable, as specified in the Logging section.The
Generate Snapshot Script
option creates and opens a live script that contains code for connecting to your device, configuring its properties, capturing a single frame, and viewing a snapshot of the captured image.The
Generate Record Script
option creates and opens a live script that contains code for connecting to your device, configuring its properties, recording a specified number of frames, and viewing the recorded video.