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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/docs.rst | 278 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/documentation-contents.rst | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/feature_requirements.rst | 145 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/index.rst | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/libcamera_architecture.rst | 138 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/meson.build | 2 |
6 files changed, 289 insertions, 278 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/docs.rst b/Documentation/docs.rst index 9c12eb61..67875ac1 100644 --- a/Documentation/docs.rst +++ b/Documentation/docs.rst @@ -21,149 +21,6 @@ The libcamera API is extensively documented using Doxygen. The :ref:`API nightly build <api>` contains the most up-to-date API documentation, built from the latest master branch. -Feature Requirements -==================== - -Device enumeration ------------------- - -The library shall support enumerating all camera devices available in the -system, including both fixed cameras and hotpluggable cameras. It shall -support cameras plugged and unplugged after the initialization of the -library, and shall offer a mechanism to notify applications of camera plug -and unplug. - -The following types of cameras shall be supported: - -* Internal cameras designed for point-and-shoot still image and video - capture usage, either controlled directly by the CPU, or exposed through - an internal USB bus as a UVC device. - -* External UVC cameras designed for video conferencing usage. - -Other types of camera, including analog cameras, depth cameras, thermal -cameras, external digital picture or movie cameras, are out of scope for -this project. - -A hardware device that includes independent camera sensors, such as front -and back sensors in a phone, shall be considered as multiple camera devices -for the purpose of this library. - -Independent Camera Devices --------------------------- - -When multiple cameras are present in the system and are able to operate -independently from each other, the library shall expose them as multiple -camera devices and support parallel operation without any additional usage -restriction apart from the limitations inherent to the hardware (such as -memory bandwidth, CPU usage or number of CSI-2 receivers for instance). - -Independent processes shall be able to use independent cameras devices -without interfering with each other. A single camera device shall be -usable by a single process at a time. - -Multiple streams support ------------------------- - -The library shall support multiple video streams running in parallel -for each camera device, within the limits imposed by the system. - -Per frame controls ------------------- - -The library shall support controlling capture parameters for each stream -on a per-frame basis, on a best effort basis based on the capabilities of the -hardware and underlying software stack (including kernel drivers and -firmware). It shall apply capture parameters to the frame they target, and -report the value of the parameters that have effectively been used for each -captured frame. - -When a camera device supports multiple streams, the library shall allow both -control of each stream independently, and control of multiple streams -together. Streams that are controlled together shall be synchronized. No -synchronization is required for streams controlled independently. - -Capability Enumeration ----------------------- - -The library shall expose capabilities of each camera device in a way that -allows applications to discover those capabilities dynamically. Applications -shall be allowed to cache capabilities for as long as they are using the -library. If capabilities can change at runtime, the library shall offer a -mechanism to notify applications of such changes. Applications shall not -cache capabilities in long term storage between runs. - -Capabilities shall be discovered dynamically at runtime from the device when -possible, and may come, in part or in full, from platform configuration -data. - -Device Profiles ---------------- - -The library may define different camera device profiles, each with a minimum -set of required capabilities. Applications may use those profiles to quickly -determine the level of features exposed by a device without parsing the full -list of capabilities. Camera devices may implement additional capabilities -on top of the minimum required set for the profile they expose. - -3A and Image Enhancement Algorithms ------------------------------------ - -The camera devices shall implement auto exposure, auto gain and auto white -balance. Camera devices that include a focus lens shall implement auto -focus. Additional image enhancement algorithms, such as noise reduction or -video stabilization, may be implemented. - -All algorithms may be implemented in hardware or firmware outside of the -library, or in software in the library. They shall all be controllable by -applications. - -The library shall be architectured to isolate the 3A and image enhancement -algorithms in a component with a documented API, respectively called the 3A -component and the 3A API. The 3A API shall be stable, and shall allow both -open-source and closed-source implementations of the 3A component. - -The library may include statically-linked open-source 3A components, and -shall support dynamically-linked open-source and closed-source 3A -components. - -Closed-source 3A Component Sandboxing -------------------------------------- - -For security purposes, it may be desired to run closed-source 3A components -in a separate process. The 3A API would in such a case be transported over -IPC. The 3A API shall make it possible to use any IPC mechanism that -supports passing file descriptors. - -The library may implement an IPC mechanism, and shall support third-party -platform-specific IPC mechanisms through the implementation of a -platform-specific 3A API wrapper. No modification to the library shall be -needed to use such third-party IPC mechanisms. - -The 3A component shall not directly access any device node on the system. -Such accesses shall instead be performed through the 3A API. The library -shall validate all accesses and restrict them to what is absolutely required -by 3A components. - -V4L2 Compatibility Layer ------------------------- - -The project shall support traditional V4L2 application through an additional -libcamera wrapper library. The wrapper library shall trap all accesses to -camera devices through `LD_PRELOAD`, and route them through libcamera to -emulate a high-level V4L2 camera device. It shall expose camera device -features on a best-effort basis, and aim for the level of features -traditionally available from a UVC camera designed for video conferencing. - -Android Camera HAL v3 Compatibility ------------------------------------ - -The library API shall expose all the features required to implement an -Android Camera HAL v3 on top of libcamera. Some features of the HAL may be -omitted as long as they can be implemented separately in the HAL, such as -JPEG encoding, or YUV reprocessing. - - Camera Stack ============ @@ -267,138 +124,3 @@ Native libcamera API followed in the :doc:`Application writer's guide </guides/application-developer>` .. _GStreamer element: https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/application-development/basics/elements.html - -libcamera Architecture -====================== - -:: - - ---------------------------< libcamera Public API >--------------------------- - ^ ^ - | | - v v - +-------------+ +-------------------------------------------------+ - | Camera | | Camera Device | - | Devices | | +---------------------------------------------+ | - | 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 - -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, is built around a set of -separate helpers internally, uses device-specific components and can -load dynamic plugins. - -Camera Devices Manager - The Camera Devices Manager provides a view of available cameras - in the system. It performs cold enumeration and runtime camera - management, and supports a hotplug notification mechanism in its - public API. - - To avoid the cost associated with cold enumeration of all devices - at application start, and to arbitrate concurrent access to camera - devices, the Camera Devices Manager could later be split to a - separate service, possibly with integration in platform-specific - device management. - -Camera Device - The Camera Device represents a camera device to upper layers. It - exposes full control of the device through the public API, and is - thus the highest level object exposed by libcamera. - - Camera Device instances are created by the Camera Devices - Manager. An optional function to create new instances could be exposed - through the public API to speed up initialization when the upper - layer knows how to directly address camera devices present in the - system. - -Pipeline Handler - The Pipeline Handler manages complex pipelines exposed by the kernel drivers - through the Media Controller and V4L2 APIs. It abstracts pipeline handling to - hide device-specific details to 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. - - This component is device-specific and is part of the libcamera code base. As - such it is covered by the same free software license as the rest of libcamera - and needs to be contributed upstream by device vendors. 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. - -Image Processing Algorithms - Together with the hardware image processing and hardware statistics - collection, the Image Processing Algorithms implement 3A (Auto-Exposure, - Auto-White Balance and Auto-Focus) and other algorithms. They run on the CPU - and interact with the kernel camera devices to control hardware image - processing based on the parameters supplied by upper layers, closing the - control loop of the ISP. - - This component is device-specific and is loaded as an external plugin. It can - be part of the libcamera code base, in which case it is covered by the same - license, or provided externally as an open-source or closed-source component. - - The component is sandboxed and can only interact with libcamera through - internal APIs specifically marked as such. In particular it will have no - direct access to kernel camera devices, and all its accesses to image and - metadata will be mediated by dmabuf instances explicitly passed to the - component. The component must be prepared to run in a process separate from - the main libcamera process, and to have a very restricted view of the system, - including no access to networking APIs and limited access to file systems. - - The sandboxing mechanism isn't defined by libcamera. One example - implementation will be provided as part of the project, and platforms vendors - will be able to provide their own sandboxing mechanism as a plugin. - - libcamera should provide a basic implementation of Image Processing - Algorithms, to serve as a reference for the internal API. Device vendors are - expected to provide a full-fledged implementation compatible with their - Pipeline Handler. One goal of the libcamera project is to create an - environment in which the community will be able to compete with the - closed-source vendor binaries and develop a high quality open source - implementation. - -Helpers and Support Classes - While Pipeline Handlers are device-specific, implementations are expected to - share code due to usage of identical APIs towards the kernel camera drivers - and the Image Processing Algorithms. This includes without limitation handling - of the MC and V4L2 APIs, buffer management through dmabuf, and pipeline - discovery, configuration and scheduling. Such code will be factored out to - helpers when applicable. - - Other parts of libcamera will also benefit from factoring code out to - self-contained support classes, even if such code is present only once in the - code base, in order to keep the source code clean and easy to read. This - should be the case for instance for plugin management. diff --git a/Documentation/documentation-contents.rst b/Documentation/documentation-contents.rst index a6915e05..c7b78c43 100644 --- a/Documentation/documentation-contents.rst +++ b/Documentation/documentation-contents.rst @@ -7,12 +7,14 @@ * :doc:`/code-of-conduct` * :doc:`/coding-style` * :doc:`/environment_variables` + * :doc:`/feature_requirements` * :doc:`/guides/application-developer` * :doc:`/guides/introduction` * :doc:`/guides/ipa` * :doc:`/guides/pipeline-handler` * :doc:`/guides/tracing` * :doc:`/lens_driver_requirements` + * :doc:`/libcamera_architecture` * :doc:`/python-bindings` * :doc:`/sensor_driver_requirements` * :doc:`/software-isp-benchmarking` diff --git a/Documentation/feature_requirements.rst b/Documentation/feature_requirements.rst new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cae7e9ab --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/feature_requirements.rst @@ -0,0 +1,145 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0 + +.. include:: documentation-contents.rst + +Feature Requirements +==================== + +Device enumeration +------------------ + +The library shall support enumerating all camera devices available in the +system, including both fixed cameras and hotpluggable cameras. It shall +support cameras plugged and unplugged after the initialization of the +library, and shall offer a mechanism to notify applications of camera plug +and unplug. + +The following types of cameras shall be supported: + +* Internal cameras designed for point-and-shoot still image and video + capture usage, either controlled directly by the CPU, or exposed through + an internal USB bus as a UVC device. + +* External UVC cameras designed for video conferencing usage. + +Other types of camera, including analog cameras, depth cameras, thermal +cameras, external digital picture or movie cameras, are out of scope for +this project. + +A hardware device that includes independent camera sensors, such as front +and back sensors in a phone, shall be considered as multiple camera devices +for the purpose of this library. + +Independent Camera Devices +-------------------------- + +When multiple cameras are present in the system and are able to operate +independently from each other, the library shall expose them as multiple +camera devices and support parallel operation without any additional usage +restriction apart from the limitations inherent to the hardware (such as +memory bandwidth, CPU usage or number of CSI-2 receivers for instance). + +Independent processes shall be able to use independent cameras devices +without interfering with each other. A single camera device shall be +usable by a single process at a time. + +Multiple streams support +------------------------ + +The library shall support multiple video streams running in parallel +for each camera device, within the limits imposed by the system. + +Per frame controls +------------------ + +The library shall support controlling capture parameters for each stream +on a per-frame basis, on a best effort basis based on the capabilities of the +hardware and underlying software stack (including kernel drivers and +firmware). It shall apply capture parameters to the frame they target, and +report the value of the parameters that have effectively been used for each +captured frame. + +When a camera device supports multiple streams, the library shall allow both +control of each stream independently, and control of multiple streams +together. Streams that are controlled together shall be synchronized. No +synchronization is required for streams controlled independently. + +Capability Enumeration +---------------------- + +The library shall expose capabilities of each camera device in a way that +allows applications to discover those capabilities dynamically. Applications +shall be allowed to cache capabilities for as long as they are using the +library. If capabilities can change at runtime, the library shall offer a +mechanism to notify applications of such changes. Applications shall not +cache capabilities in long term storage between runs. + +Capabilities shall be discovered dynamically at runtime from the device when +possible, and may come, in part or in full, from platform configuration +data. + +Device Profiles +--------------- + +The library may define different camera device profiles, each with a minimum +set of required capabilities. Applications may use those profiles to quickly +determine the level of features exposed by a device without parsing the full +list of capabilities. Camera devices may implement additional capabilities +on top of the minimum required set for the profile they expose. + +3A and Image Enhancement Algorithms +----------------------------------- + +The camera devices shall implement auto exposure, auto gain and auto white +balance. Camera devices that include a focus lens shall implement auto +focus. Additional image enhancement algorithms, such as noise reduction or +video stabilization, may be implemented. + +All algorithms may be implemented in hardware or firmware outside of the +library, or in software in the library. They shall all be controllable by +applications. + +The library shall be architectured to isolate the 3A and image enhancement +algorithms in a component with a documented API, respectively called the 3A +component and the 3A API. The 3A API shall be stable, and shall allow both +open-source and closed-source implementations of the 3A component. + +The library may include statically-linked open-source 3A components, and +shall support dynamically-linked open-source and closed-source 3A +components. + +Closed-source 3A Component Sandboxing +------------------------------------- + +For security purposes, it may be desired to run closed-source 3A components +in a separate process. The 3A API would in such a case be transported over +IPC. The 3A API shall make it possible to use any IPC mechanism that +supports passing file descriptors. + +The library may implement an IPC mechanism, and shall support third-party +platform-specific IPC mechanisms through the implementation of a +platform-specific 3A API wrapper. No modification to the library shall be +needed to use such third-party IPC mechanisms. + +The 3A component shall not directly access any device node on the system. +Such accesses shall instead be performed through the 3A API. The library +shall validate all accesses and restrict them to what is absolutely required +by 3A components. + +V4L2 Compatibility Layer +------------------------ + +The project shall support traditional V4L2 application through an additional +libcamera wrapper library. The wrapper library shall trap all accesses to +camera devices through `LD_PRELOAD`, and route them through libcamera to +emulate a high-level V4L2 camera device. It shall expose camera device +features on a best-effort basis, and aim for the level of features +traditionally available from a UVC camera designed for video conferencing. + +Android Camera HAL v3 Compatibility +----------------------------------- + +The library API shall expose all the features required to implement an +Android Camera HAL v3 on top of libcamera. Some features of the HAL may be +omitted as long as they can be implemented separately in the HAL, such as +JPEG encoding, or YUV reprocessing. diff --git a/Documentation/index.rst b/Documentation/index.rst index 52ddc494..95c80b4e 100644 --- a/Documentation/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/index.rst @@ -18,8 +18,10 @@ Camera Sensor Model <camera-sensor-model> Developer Guide <guides/introduction> Environment variables <environment_variables> + Feature Requirements <feature_requirements> IPA Writer's guide <guides/ipa> Lens driver requirements <lens_driver_requirements> + libcamera Architecture <libcamera_architecture> Pipeline Handler Writer's Guide <guides/pipeline-handler> Python Bindings <python-bindings> Sensor driver requirements <sensor_driver_requirements> diff --git a/Documentation/libcamera_architecture.rst b/Documentation/libcamera_architecture.rst new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1258db23 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/libcamera_architecture.rst @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0 + +.. include:: documentation-contents.rst + +libcamera Architecture +====================== + +:: + + ---------------------------< libcamera Public API >--------------------------- + ^ ^ + | | + v v + +-------------+ +-------------------------------------------------+ + | Camera | | Camera Device | + | Devices | | +---------------------------------------------+ | + | 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 + +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, is built around a set of +separate helpers internally, uses device-specific components and can +load dynamic plugins. + +Camera Devices Manager + The Camera Devices Manager provides a view of available cameras + in the system. It performs cold enumeration and runtime camera + management, and supports a hotplug notification mechanism in its + public API. + + To avoid the cost associated with cold enumeration of all devices + at application start, and to arbitrate concurrent access to camera + devices, the Camera Devices Manager could later be split to a + separate service, possibly with integration in platform-specific + device management. + +Camera Device + The Camera Device represents a camera device to upper layers. It + exposes full control of the device through the public API, and is + thus the highest level object exposed by libcamera. + + Camera Device instances are created by the Camera Devices + Manager. An optional function to create new instances could be exposed + through the public API to speed up initialization when the upper + layer knows how to directly address camera devices present in the + system. + +Pipeline Handler + The Pipeline Handler manages complex pipelines exposed by the kernel drivers + through the Media Controller and V4L2 APIs. It abstracts pipeline handling to + hide device-specific details to 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. + + This component is device-specific and is part of the libcamera code base. As + such it is covered by the same free software license as the rest of libcamera + and needs to be contributed upstream by device vendors. 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. + +Image Processing Algorithms + Together with the hardware image processing and hardware statistics + collection, the Image Processing Algorithms implement 3A (Auto-Exposure, + Auto-White Balance and Auto-Focus) and other algorithms. They run on the CPU + and interact with the kernel camera devices to control hardware image + processing based on the parameters supplied by upper layers, closing the + control loop of the ISP. + + This component is device-specific and is loaded as an external plugin. It can + be part of the libcamera code base, in which case it is covered by the same + license, or provided externally as an open-source or closed-source component. + + The component is sandboxed and can only interact with libcamera through + internal APIs specifically marked as such. In particular it will have no + direct access to kernel camera devices, and all its accesses to image and + metadata will be mediated by dmabuf instances explicitly passed to the + component. The component must be prepared to run in a process separate from + the main libcamera process, and to have a very restricted view of the system, + including no access to networking APIs and limited access to file systems. + + The sandboxing mechanism isn't defined by libcamera. One example + implementation will be provided as part of the project, and platforms vendors + will be able to provide their own sandboxing mechanism as a plugin. + + libcamera should provide a basic implementation of Image Processing + Algorithms, to serve as a reference for the internal API. Device vendors are + expected to provide a full-fledged implementation compatible with their + Pipeline Handler. One goal of the libcamera project is to create an + environment in which the community will be able to compete with the + closed-source vendor binaries and develop a high quality open source + implementation. + +Helpers and Support Classes + While Pipeline Handlers are device-specific, implementations are expected to + share code due to usage of identical APIs towards the kernel camera drivers + and the Image Processing Algorithms. This includes without limitation handling + of the MC and V4L2 APIs, buffer management through dmabuf, and pipeline + discovery, configuration and scheduling. Such code will be factored out to + helpers when applicable. + + Other parts of libcamera will also benefit from factoring code out to + self-contained support classes, even if such code is present only once in the + code base, in order to keep the source code clean and easy to read. This + should be the case for instance for plugin management. diff --git a/Documentation/meson.build b/Documentation/meson.build index 79135b6f..54788d6d 100644 --- a/Documentation/meson.build +++ b/Documentation/meson.build @@ -131,6 +131,7 @@ if sphinx.found() 'docs.rst', 'documentation-contents.rst', 'environment_variables.rst', + 'feature_requirements.rst', 'guides/application-developer.rst', 'guides/introduction.rst', 'guides/ipa.rst', @@ -138,6 +139,7 @@ if sphinx.found() 'guides/tracing.rst', 'index.rst', 'lens_driver_requirements.rst', + 'libcamera_architecture.rst', 'python-bindings.rst', 'sensor_driver_requirements.rst', 'software-isp-benchmarking.rst', |