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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/guides/introduction.rst')
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1 files changed, 2 insertions, 154 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/guides/introduction.rst b/Documentation/guides/introduction.rst index d1e67654..12d1b7d4 100644 --- a/Documentation/guides/introduction.rst +++ b/Documentation/guides/introduction.rst @@ -26,10 +26,8 @@ desirable results from the camera. .. _Media Controller: https://www.linuxtv.org/downloads/v4l-dvb-apis-new/userspace-api/mediactl/media-controller.html -In this developers guide, we will explore the internal `Architecture`_ of -the libcamera library with its components. The current `Platform Support`_ is -detailed, as well as an overview of the `Licensing`_ requirements of the -project. +In this developers guide the `Licensing`_ requirements of the project are +detailed. This introduction is followed by a walkthrough tutorial to newcomers wishing to support a new platform with the `Pipeline Handler Writers Guide`_ and for those @@ -41,156 +39,6 @@ provides a tutorial of the key APIs exposed by libcamera. .. TODO: Correctly link to the other articles of the guide -Architecture ------------- - -While offering a unified API towards upper layers, and presenting itself as a -single library, libcamera isn't monolithic. It exposes multiple components -through its public API and is built around a set of separate helpers internally. -Hardware abstractions are handled through the use of device-specific components -where required and dynamically loadable plugins are used to separate image -processing algorithms from the core libcamera codebase. - -:: - - --------------------------< libcamera Public API >--------------------------- - ^ ^ - | | - v v - +-------------+ +---------------------------------------------------+ - | Camera | | Camera Device | - | Manager | | +-----------------------------------------------+ | - +-------------+ | | Device-Agnostic | | - ^ | | | | - | | | +--------------------------+ | - | | | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | - | | | | { +-----------------+ } | - | | | | } | //// Image //// | { | - | | | | <-> | / Processing // | } | - | | | | } | / Algorithms // | { | - | | | | { +-----------------+ } | - | | | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | - | | | | ========================== | - | | | | +-----------------+ | - | | | | | // Pipeline /// | | - | | | | <-> | /// Handler /// | | - | | | | | /////////////// | | - | | +--------------------+ +-----------------+ | - | | Device-Specific | - | +---------------------------------------------------+ - | ^ ^ - | | | - v v v - +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ - | Helpers and Support Classes | - | +-------------+ +-------------+ +-------------+ +-------------+ | - | | MC & V4L2 | | Buffers | | Sandboxing | | Plugins | | - | | Support | | Allocator | | IPC | | Manager | | - | +-------------+ +-------------+ +-------------+ +-------------+ | - | +-------------+ +-------------+ | - | | Pipeline | | ... | | - | | Runner | | | | - | +-------------+ +-------------+ | - +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ - - /// Device-Specific Components - ~~~ Sandboxing - - -Camera Manager - The Camera Manager enumerates cameras and instantiates Pipeline Handlers to - manage each Camera that libcamera supports. The Camera Manager supports - hotplug detection and notification events when supported by the underlying - kernel devices. - - There is only ever one instance of the Camera Manager running per application. - Each application's instance of the Camera Manager ensures that only a single - application can take control of a camera device at once. - - Read the `Camera Manager API`_ documentation for more details. - -.. _Camera Manager API: https://libcamera.org/api-html/classlibcamera_1_1CameraManager.html - -Camera Device - The Camera class represents a single item of camera hardware that is capable - of producing one or more image streams, and provides the API to interact with - the underlying device. - - If a system has multiple instances of the same hardware attached, each has its - own instance of the camera class. - - The API exposes full control of the device to upper layers of libcamera through - the public API, making it the highest level object libcamera exposes, and the - object that all other API operations interact with from configuration to - capture. - - Read the `Camera API`_ documentation for more details. - -.. _Camera API: https://libcamera.org/api-html/classlibcamera_1_1Camera.html - -Pipeline Handler - The Pipeline Handler manages the complex pipelines exposed by the kernel - drivers through the Media Controller and V4L2 APIs. It abstracts pipeline - handling to hide device-specific details from the rest of the library, and - implements both pipeline configuration based on stream configuration, and - pipeline runtime execution and scheduling when needed by the device. - - The Pipeline Handler lives in the same process as the rest of the library, and - has access to all helpers and kernel camera-related devices. - - Hardware abstraction is handled by device specific Pipeline Handlers which are - derived from the Pipeline Handler base class allowing commonality to be shared - among the implementations. - - Derived pipeline handlers create Camera device instances based on the devices - they detect and support on the running system, and are responsible for - managing the interactions with a camera device. - - More details can be found in the `PipelineHandler API`_ documentation, and the - `Pipeline Handler Writers Guide`_. - -.. _PipelineHandler API: https://libcamera.org/api-html/classlibcamera_1_1PipelineHandler.html - -Image Processing Algorithms - An image processing algorithm (IPA) component is a loadable plugin that - implements 3A (Auto-Exposure, Auto-White Balance, and Auto-Focus) and other - algorithms. - - The algorithms run on the CPU and interact with the camera devices through the - Pipeline Handler to control hardware image processing based on the parameters - supplied by upper layers, maintaining state and closing the control loop - of the ISP. - - The component is sandboxed and can only interact with libcamera through the - API provided by the Pipeline Handler and an IPA has no direct access to kernel - camera devices. - - Open source IPA modules built with libcamera can be run in the same process - space as libcamera, however external IPA modules are run in a separate process - from the main libcamera process. IPA modules have a restricted view of the - system, including no access to networking APIs and limited access to file - systems. - - IPA modules are only required for platforms and devices with an ISP controlled - by the host CPU. Camera sensors which have an integrated ISP are not - controlled through the IPA module. - -Platform Support ----------------- - -The library currently supports the following hardware platforms specifically -with dedicated pipeline handlers: - - - Intel IPU3 (ipu3) - - Rockchip RK3399 (rkisp1) - - RaspberryPi 3 and 4 (rpi/vc4) - -Furthermore, generic platform support is provided for the following: - - - USB video device class cameras (uvcvideo) - - iMX7, Allwinner Sun6i (simple) - - Virtual media controller driver for test use cases (vimc) - Licensing --------- |