Configure a Dual Stream Camera

A dual_stream HTTP client camera combines the streams of two camera servers to create colorful point clouds. One camera server streams a color stream and the other camera server streams a depth stream.

Navigate to the Config tab of your robot’s page in the Viam app. Click on the Components subtab and click Create component. Select the camera type, then select the dual_stream model. Enter a name for your camera and click Create.

Configuration of a dual stream camera in the Viam app config builder.

Edit and fill in the attributes as applicable.

{
    "name": "<your-camera-name>",
    "type": "camera",
    "model" : "dual_stream",
    "attributes": {
        "intrinsic_parameters": {
            "width_px": <int>,
            "height_px": <int>,
            "fx": <float>,
            "fy": <float>,
            "ppx": <float>,
            "ppy": <float>
        },
        "distortion_parameters": {
            "rk1": <float>,
            "rk2": <float>,
            "rk3": <float>,
            "tp1": <float>,
            "tp2": <float>
        },
        "stream": "<color|depth>",
        "debug": <boolean>,
        "color_url": <string>,
        "depth_url": <string>
    }
}

The following attributes are available for dual_stream cameras views:

NameTypeInclusionDescription
streamstringRequiredcolor or depth. The image stream to return when you call Next() or NextPointCloud().
color_urlstringRequiredThe color stream url.
depth_urlstringRequiredThe depth stream url.
intrinsic_parametersobjectOptionalThe intrinsic parameters of the camera used to do 2D <-> 3D projections:
  • width_px: The expected width of the aligned image in pixels.
  • height_px: The expected height of the aligned image in pixels.
  • fx: The image center x point.
  • fy: The image center y point.
  • ppx: The image focal x.
  • ppy: The image focal y.
distortion_parametersobjectOptionalModified Brown-Conrady parameters used to correct for distortions caused by the shape of the camera lens:
  • rk1: The radial distortion x.
  • rk2: The radial distortion y.
  • rk3: The radial distortion z.
  • tp1: The tangential distortion x.
  • tp2: The tangential distortion y.
debugbooleanOptionalEnables the debug outputs from the camera if true.
Default: false

View the camera stream

Once your camera is configured and connected, go to the Control tab, and click on the camera’s dropdown menu. Then toggle the camera or the Point Cloud Data view to ON. If everything is configured correctly, you will see the live video feed from your camera. You can change the refresh frequency as needed to change bandwidth.

Example Camera view inside Viam app

Next Steps

Calibrate a Camera

Calibrate a camera and extract the intrinsic and distortion parameters.

transform

Instructions for transforming a camera.

Vision
Vision

The vision service enables your smart machine to use its on-board cameras to intelligently see and interpret the world around it.



Have questions, or want to meet other people working on robots? Join our Community Discord.