civiq6 0.2.1
Package for integrating VimbaPython and Qt6
License: MIT
Requires Python: >=3.7

# CIViQ6 - Camera Integration for Vimba and Qt6

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CIViQ6 is a Python package which integrates [VimbaPython](https://github.com/alliedvision/VimbaPython) and Qt6 multimedia scheme.

It provides:
- Class to instantiate the Vimba instance in `QThread`
- Camera API similar to that of QtMultimedia
- Compatibility with `QVideoSink` and `QVideoWidget`

The following Qt bindings are supported:
- [PySide6](https://pypi.org/project/PySide6/)
- [PyQt6](https://pypi.org/project/PyQt6/)

This package is tested using Vimba 6.0, VimbaPython 1.2.1, and Mako U-130B camera device connected to the device with Window 11.

# How to use

CIViQ6 imitates QtMultimedia scheme to provide API for the Allied Vision camera device.

|     CIViQ6 class    |    Qt6 counterpart   |
| ------------------- | -------------------- |
|     VimbaRunner     |           -          |
|     VimbaDevices    |      QMediaDevices   |
|  VimbaCameraDevice  |      QCameraDevice   |
|     VimbaCamera     |        QCamera       |
| VimbaCaptureSession | QMediaCaptureSession |

## Running the Vimba instance

`VimbaRunner` is a runner which wraps the VimbaPython API and starts Vimba.

To start the Vimba instance, move `VimbaRunner` to a dedicated `QThread` and run it.
This task must be done before any other Vimba-related operation.

## Streaming the camera

Once the Vimba instance is started, user can construct `VimbaCamera` instance, set it to `VimbaCaptureSession`, and run it just as one would do with `QCamera` and `QMediaCaptureSession`.

Set `QVideoWidget` or `QVideoSink` (or any other `QObject`-based preview) to the capture session to stream the camera.

## Setting the camera properties

`VimbaCamera` provides methods which return VimbaPython's `Feature` objects that can get and set the camera properties.

## Capturing and recording

Unlike Qt6, CIViQ6 does not have default classes that support image capturing and video recording from `VimbaCaptureSession`. User must define own classes that write VimbaPython's `Frame` object to file.

The documentaion provides examples for defining the image capturer and video recorder.

# Examples

Use cases are provided in [examples](https://github.com/JSS95/civiq6/tree/master/civiq6/examples) directory.
They can be found in documentation as well.

# Installation

Before you install, be careful for other Qt-dependent packages installed in your environment.
For example, non-headless `OpenCV-Python` modifies the Qt dependency thus can make other Qt bindings unavailable.

To install CIViQ6, you first need to install [VimbaPython](https://github.com/alliedvision/VimbaPython) package which is not distributed by PyPI.
Go to its repository and follow the instructions.

After VimbaPython is installed, `civiq6` can be installed using `pip`.

```
$ pip install civiq6
```

# Documentation

CIViQ6 is documented with [Sphinx](https://pypi.org/project/Sphinx/).
Documentation can be found on Read the Docs:

> https://civiq6.readthedocs.io/

If you want to build the document yourself, clone the source code and install with `[doc]` option.
This option installs the additional packages to build the document and to run the examples.

Go to `doc` directory and build the document.

```
$ pip install civiq6[doc]
$ cd doc
$ make html
```

Document will be generated in `build/html` directory. Open `index.html` to see the central page.