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IP Camera Acquisition Overview

IP cameras, also referred to as netcams or network cameras, are increasingly popular in live image processing applications. Use the MATLAB® Support Package for IP Cameras to bring live images from an Internet Protocol (IP) camera into MATLAB. Images can be from IP Cameras that support MJPEG over HTTP/RTSP or H.264 over RTSP stream with basic authentication or digest authentication.

With simple MATLAB functions you can preview your image, acquire single snapshots from the camera, and optionally set up a loop of acquired images. The ipcam function creates the IP Camera object that is used to acquire images, and the snapshot function returns a single image from the camera.

IP Camera support is available only through a hardware support package. Download and install the necessary files using the Support Package Installer, which you open by typing supportPackageInstaller in MATLAB. On the Select support package to install screen, select IP Cameras from the list.

You can use MATLAB IP Camera support on the following platforms:

  • Microsoft® Windows® 64-bit

  • Mac OS X 64-bit

  • Linux®

Note

You can also use the Simulink® block Network Video Receive (MATLAB Coder) to receive video from an IP camera RTSP stream.