User Manual on installation and adjustment of cameras Altami

System requirements

• Operational systems: Line of 32-bit Windows operating systems: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Vista;
• Processor with bit-timing frequency from 1 GHz, it is recommended to use the processor with higher bit-timing frequency;
• Ram memory from 512 MB;
• Graphic adapter should provide work in TrueColor regime (24 or 32 bits for pixel);
• For work with cameras it is necessary to have a free USB-port on a separate USB-hub for each camera.

Camera installation

In order to install camera you have to firstly install drivers for it. Launch AutoRun and select in an opened menu Драйверы камер Altami (Driver for Altami cameras).

Select the installer language.

Click OK in order to continue installation or Cancel in order to cancel installation.

In Congratulations window of installation master click Next in order to continue installation.

If you want to change something in the previous step, click Back. Learn the License agreement and accept it by clicking I Agree.

The installer shall unpack files and write them to disc. After installing drivers you shall be able to exit the installer by clicking Close.

Drivers are at the installation disc in InstallDisk→Drivers→Altami. If you want to install them not using AutoRun, use the indicated way and in Altami folder click the Setup icon.

Also, you can download drivers at our site.

After the installing of drivers is finished, launch Altami Studio application and select File→Connect device.

In the devices list of the Device menu find the model of the connected camera, and in the Mode point select the play mode. After that start adjusting the camera.

Camera Settings

Settings of cameras Altami USB 3150R6 1/2CMOS, Altami USB 5000R5 1/2.5CMOS and Altami USB 6600R5 1CMOS can be slightly different but with the help of this manual you will be able to adjust any of this cameras by yourself.

There are two main camera settings – white balance and time of image accumulation. White balance is responsible for color transfer, and accumulation time – for image brightness.

You can also adjust quality and appearance of images with the help of the Camera Settings panel. Click the Settings button and you will see the list of parameters which can be changed.

Depending on the camera model, the list of parameters can be different. Settings are standard for photo equipment and influence the color and appearance (gamma, saturation) of the image.

You can adjust the following settings:

• Resolution — establishes image resolution which is received from camera. Resolution is images sizes in pixels. For example, "resolution 1024x768" means that received image consists of 1024*768=786432 pixels, by that, the breadth of image equals to 1024 pixels, and height - 768 pixels. Frames with great resolution demand more time for processing, yet provide more detailed information.
• Shutter — can be considered time until response of camera shutter. The more is the value of this setting, the lighter frames from camera will be, yet, they will have more noises.
• Frames exposure — more rough analogue of Shutter setting.
• White balance (wb red, wb green, wb blue) — white balance setting. By this setting operator tells camera what can be considered a white color. Often color range of the image transmitted by camera is different from what the eye perceives. The differences can be explained by peculiarities of hyman eyesight.

White balance setting by hand:

1. Place under the microscope an object which is considered to be white.

2. Reset the camera settings. That means, set the parameter values as it is indicated below: RGB:128; Brightness:1; Saturation: 128; Gamma: 20; Shutter: max (parameter responsible for lighting); Gain: 1; Frames Exposure: 0 (parameter responsible for lighting); Bits: High (parameter responsible for lighting).

3. By adjusting microscope lighting move brightness histogram into the center.

histogram_1.png

4. By sliders R, G and B achieve the situation when peaks of respective components in the center are combined.

5. Correct the lighting with the microscope.

• Brightness — correction of the image brightness. Raising the value of this setting makes all pixels of the image lighter. At the histogram the process of raising or decreasing brightness is expressed by moving values right or left respectively.
• Contrast — relation of brightnesses of the lightest and the darkest parts of the image. It is necessary to select the contrast on the basis of the visual assessment of the image quality.
• Gamma — gamma-correction of the image. Gamma correction is non linear correction of the image brightness for adjusting to the output device (monitor). The adjustment allows to show separate parts of the image without losing detailing at other parts.
• Gain — correction of the image brightness by means of raising the amplitude of the analogue signal. The principal difference from the other correction methods is that correction in this case happens before the moment of analogue and number signal transformation.
• Saturation — correction of saturation of the image colors. Decreasing the value of this setting makes the image closer to gray, raising leads to more colorful image.

Setting of the image quality

In order to receive a quality picture from camera it is necessary to adjust the white balance and exposition.

White balance setting

Put a white shit of paper under the camera, connect the camera and receive at screen image of the white sheet. Open panels Camera settings and Histogram. Reset the camera settings. By setting of the microscope lighting we move the lighting histogram to the center. With the help of wb red, wb green, and wb blue reach the situation when at the histogram all three graphs of each color are put at each other (peaks adjustment of the respective components in the center of the histogram). After which we correct the lighting with the microscope.

* In Altami Studio 3.0.0 the possibility of automatic white balance setting for Altami cameras is realized.

Exposition setting

The image received from camera by standard settings can be too light or too dark. It is possible to reach the needed intensity with the help of Shutter or Frames exposure settings. Both parameters are the time of frame accumulation. By that, Shutter is a more sophisticate setting. The whole time is determined by the following formula:

t = F • Smax + S,

where F — Frames exposure,

Smax — is a maximum value of the Shutter setting,

S — is the value of the Shutter setting.

The more is t time, the brighter is the picture shown on screen. It is convenient to make rough adjustment with the Frames exposure slider, and after that to correct the received result by the Shutter slider.

It is important to remember that a high value of Frames exposure parameter can essentially decrease speed of stream from camera, and the image can be “slow”.

Brightness and contrast setting with the help of histogram

It is convenient to set image contrast and brightness with the help of the histogram.

Accumulation setting

Accumulation setting is used for increasing the quality of the image which is received from camera. It is possible to open the settings window with the help of the menu Capture→Accumulation settings.

• Accumulate — the number of frames which will be accumulated by the application and averaged before the image is shown in the document window. Frames accumulation allows to decrease the noises of the image.
• Skip — number of frames which will be skipped by the application, that means, will not be processed and shown. It is necessary in order to decrease the burden on the computer processor.

It is not desirable to use accumulation and skipping of frames by work with the moving image.

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Read more on the subject:

User manual on installation and settings of DCM cameras in Altami Studio
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