The MontiVision Development Kit is an SDK for the creation of image/video processing applications based on Microsofts DirectShow® (DirectX®) technology. It provides a powerful graphical design environment, the MontiVision Workbench. A comprehensive collection of image/video/audio processing and I/O components, an SDK to easily create new components, a collection of ActiveX controls for easy integration into custom applications and some useful tools are provided to aid and increase your productivity and project development.
In DirectShow® terminology, components are called filters. This includes all components, not only components with 'filter' functionality as known in the image processing/machine vision terminology. A filter is a common term for almost all components within DirectShow®.
The MontiVision Workbench is a graphical IDE (integrated development environment) which allows you to create and test complete DirectShow filter configurations including video, audio and I/O functionality. The created configurations are either saved into a file which can then become the base for a customized application or exported as include files for common programming languages. An application loads and controls the configuration file using the MontiVision Smart Control. The vast capabilities of the Workbench and the ActiveX Controls are far beyond the scope of an overview. Take a look at the workbench help pages to find out more about these components.
The MontiVision Development Kit provides a multitude of components (DirectShow® filters) for input, output and processing of image, video, audio and I/O signals to facilitate creation of simple through to infinitely complex configurations. In addition to these, your operating system already includes many standard DirectShow filters that can be used by the Workbench as well. Among other already-included filters, the video renderer filter is used to show a video stream in a window, and the tee filter is used to split a stream into several streams. Hardware such as video cameras or sound devices are also made available through source filters. You can easily select different filters to construct your configuration. The MontiVision DirectShow Filter library implements a lot of standard image and processing functions. To learn more about MontiVision DirectShow Filters, take a look at the filter help pages. The DirectShow® SDK documentation will contain information about the filters already installed in the operating system.
The MontiVision Filter SDK is used to develop new DirectShow Filters which enhance the functionality of the application. You do not need any prior knowledge about DirectShow® to create your own DirectShow filter using the MontiVision Filter SDK. The provided SDK encapsulates the DirectShow® functionality in a general filter, leaving you the simple task of creating a standard Windows dynamic link library. To find out more about the MontiVision Filter SDK take a look at the SDK help pages.
The MontiVision Smart Control is an ActiveX control that is used to integrate filter configurations that are created by the Workbench into customized applications. It provides the functionality to load, save and control configurations. Furthermore it provides access to the interfaces of the filters included in the configuration, making it possible to change the parameters of the image processing algorithms at runtime as well as retrieving information from the filters. Here you find a detailed description of the MontiVision Smart Control.
A collection of utility controls simplifies a lot of tasks like video source selection and control, VMR Video Renderer control, DirectShow Filter Property Page use in applications and I/O output pin data processing.
Some tools help you to configure multi camera systems, to test filter configurations, to easily create a Filter SDK DLL and much more.
Architecture overview
The Architecture of the MontiVision Development Kit: