The MontiVision Development Kit, a high level DirectShow
SDK
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 (GraphEdit like graphical DirectShow
Development Environment)
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.
Available DirectShow Filters
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 DirectShow Filter SDK
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 ActiveX Control for simnple
DirectShow Development
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.
The MontiVision Utility ActiveX Controls
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.
Tools
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:

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