The hardware
requirements are much less stringent than for DigImage. Any machine running
Windows 2000, XP or
In terms of
cameras, you may use any route to capture the images. DigiFlow does not require
a framegrabber to be installed in order to run. However, DigiFlow can control a
framegrabber, giving some additional functionality. DigiFlow currently supports
the BitFlow R-series framegrabbers (http://www.bitflow.com/;
including the RoadRunner, R3, R64, R64e, Karbon and Neon cards). There are
variants of these cards that link to LVD and CameraLink video cameras, the two
main standards for high resolution. At present DigiFlow has been tested with
eight different makes and models of camera: the Dalsa DA6 (512x512x8 @ 262fps http://vfm.dalsa.com/), Dalsa 4M60 (2048´2048´10 @ 60 fps) the Jai CVM4+ (1320x1024x10
@24fps, or faster using reduced resolution), the UniqVision
UP900DS-CL and UP1830CL-12b, the VDS CCD1300QFB, the Pulnix TM1040 and the
Camelia 8M (3500x2300x12 @2.7fps). The BitFlow cards have one of the widest
range of supported cameras of any. Further details and configuration files for
cameras that have been tested with DigiFlow are available here.
Integrated support
for digital camcorders and firewire is as yet incomplete (as is TWAIN).
However, you can of course always capture through another route (e.g. Adobe
Premier) then analyse with DigiFlow.
With a digital
camera there is no need to have a video recorder. However, you need to have a
lot of fast disk space (and preferably a method of backing up or archiving the
material).
Most of the current
generation of high-end desktop computers and workstations are capable of
supporting the bandwidth requirements to capture these cameras direct to hard
disk. The latest on which DigiFlow is being used with a framegrabber card are
à CPU:
Single Core 2 Duo (preferably E8500 or above), or a dual processor
à Motherboard: Intel DX38BT
à Disks: 2 disks of 500GB 7200 rpm disks. One disk (not the one with the operating system) should be reserved for video capture. See user guide for details.
à
RAM: 2GB (4GB with
à Graphics: PCIexpress
à Monitor: Your choice, but preferably capable of 1600x1200 or more
à Optical: See below
à Network: (onboard gigabit)
à
OS: XP Pro or Vista Business,
à Mouse: Intellieye
à Keyboard: Standard
à Case: Medium tower
The key component
(if you are to do some capturing) is the motherboard. If you are buying a new
machine then you should go for one supporting PCIexpress expansion cards. At
time of writing (May 2008), motherboards based on Intel’s X38 performance
desktop chipset are best suited to the job (e.g.
the Intel DX38BT motherboard). One of these can be matched with either single core
Pentium, dual core Pentium-D, Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processor and 2 or 4GB
of memory. Older motherboards will also work OK in most circumstances, provided
they are either based on a server chipset, or one that supports hyperthreaded
cpus. (The D975XBX motherboard has proven particularly good.)
The disks are
arranged with one as the boot drive, and the other(s) for data, video, etc. If
three drives, then you will get best performance if the second and third are
striped under XP or
Dual core CPUs are
arguably the best current compromise. A single core CPU can do the job, but may
give poor performance when trying to do more than one thing at once. The price
premium for a quad core does not offer good value for a modest increase in
throughput.