A software architecture for image acquisition and camera control in an active computer vision system

In a system for active computer vision, there is an intrinsic need for interfacing two different kinds of specific hardware devices: image digitizer and controllable camera. The architecture of software components responsible for these interfaces must be carefully designed in order to achieve their scalability, testability, maintainability, reusability and portability. Hardware abstraction is a major concern in this context since it allows to compile and test other system components independently of actual devices and their manufacturers. The paper reports on a feasible solution to the problem having many of the desired properties, using the object oriented design methodology. The designed architecture have been successfully implemented, in combination with several actual mechanisms for image acquisition and camera control.