MindTorque

Martin, A couple of other possibilites... images can be written to and read from the clipboard of course, for a more sophisticated scheme there's http://www.roborealm.com/help/Distributor.php for farming the work of processing images across multiple computers. Appropirately talented people can customize RoboRealm via their own plugins: http://www.roborealm.com/help/plugins.php I haven't gotten that elaborate given that anything I've wanted to do so far has been adequately addressed by their generous selection of modules. Cheers

Martin, If you want to grab the image to another application you can use the virtual webcam driver to share it with up to 5 other applications - see http://www.roborealm.com/help/Virtual_Camera_Driver.php for the particulars. So far I'm quite impressed with the amount of options RoboRealm provides although I'm still short on time to experiment with it, but I've found such things as fiducials very handy.

Found a typo in one line where it gets the handle for the window. The corrected line is: $Handle = WinWait($RR_Ver, "", 15)

Martin, I haven't yet had time to explore RoboRealm to the extent I'd like, but I suspect that most analysis you'd likely wish to perform can be handled by the broad variety of modules provided that can be inserted into the pipeline, with the results put into one or more variables that AutoIt can get via GetVariable - this way RoboRealm is doing all the "heavy lifting". I agree that having to write it to disk and read it back would be rather clunky, even if one uses a ramdisk to speed the process. I don't yet know precisely how GetImage works, although I grabbed a look at the type library if that's of any help to you. Here they are: // Generated .IDL file (by the OLE/COM Object Viewer) // // typelib filename: RR_COM_API.dll [ uuid(2DDA153B-5603-4697-AAC9-2B6FDCF1DC64), version(1.0), helpstring("RR_COM_API 1.0 Type Library"), custom(DE77BA64-517C-11D1-A2DA-0000F8773CE9, 83951780), custom(DE77BA63-517C-11D1-A2DA-0000F8773CE9, 1303678299) ] library RR_COM_APILib { // TLib : // TLib : OLE Automation : {00020430-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} importlib("stdole2.tlb"); // Forward declare all types defined in this typelib interface IAPI_Wrapper; [ uuid(5379A53A-B254-483B-9DA0-AF6BA0970BE3), helpstring("API_Wrapper Class") ] coclass API_Wrapper { [default] interface IAPI_Wrapper; }; [ odl, uuid(B3B82392-E613-4711-B619-E04555549903), helpstring("IAPI_Wrapper Interface"), dual, oleautomation ] interface IAPI_Wrapper : IDispatch { [id(0x00000001), helpstring("method Connect")] HRESULT Connect( [in] BSTR hostname, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000002), helpstring("method Disconnect")] HRESULT Disconnect([out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000003), helpstring("method GetDimension")] HRESULT GetDimension( [out] VARIANT* width, [out] VARIANT* height, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000004), helpstring("method GetImage")] HRESULT GetImage( [in] BSTR name, [out] VARIANT* image, [out] VARIANT* width, [out] VARIANT* height, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000005), helpstring("method SetImage")] HRESULT SetImage( [in] BSTR name, [in] VARIANT* image, [in] VARIANT* width, [in] VARIANT* height); [id(0x00000006), helpstring("method GetVariable")] HRESULT GetVariable( [in] BSTR name, [out, retval] BSTR* value); [id(0x00000007), helpstring("method SetVariable")] HRESULT SetVariable( [in] BSTR name, [in] BSTR value, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000008), helpstring("method DeleteVariable")] HRESULT DeleteVariable( [in] BSTR name, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000009), helpstring("method Execute")] HRESULT Execute( [in] BSTR str, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000000a), helpstring("method LoadProgram")] HRESULT LoadProgram( [in] BSTR filename, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000000b), helpstring("method LoadImage")] HRESULT LoadImage( [in] BSTR name, [in] BSTR filename, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000000c), helpstring("method SaveImage")] HRESULT SaveImage( [in] BSTR name, [in] BSTR filename, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000000d), helpstring("method SetCamera")] HRESULT SetCamera( [in] BSTR name, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000000e), helpstring("method Run")] HRESULT Run( [in] BSTR name, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000000f), helpstring("method WaitVariable")] HRESULT WaitVariable( [in] BSTR name, [in] BSTR value, [in] long timeout, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000010), helpstring("method WaitImage")] HRESULT WaitImage([out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000011), helpstring("method LoadPPM")] HRESULT LoadPPM( [in] BSTR filename, [in] VARIANT* image, [in] VARIANT* width, [in] VARIANT* height, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000012), helpstring("method SavePPM")] HRESULT SavePPM( [in] BSTR filename, [in] VARIANT* image, [in] VARIANT* width, [in] VARIANT* height, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000013), helpstring("method Open")] HRESULT Open( [in] BSTR hostname, [in] VARIANT* port, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000014), helpstring("method Close")] HRESULT Close([out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000015), helpstring("method GetVariables")] HRESULT GetVariables( [in] BSTR name, [out, retval] VARIANT* value); [id(0x00000016), helpstring("method SetVariables")] HRESULT SetVariables( [in] VARIANT* names, [in] VARIANT* values, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000017), helpstring("method SetParameter")] HRESULT SetParameter( [in] BSTR mod, [in] VARIANT* count, [in] BSTR name, [in] BSTR value, long* res); [id(0x00000018), helpstring("method GetParameter")] HRESULT GetParameter( [in] BSTR mod, [in] VARIANT* count, [in] BSTR name, [out, retval] BSTR* res); [id(0x00000019), helpstring("method MinimizeWindow")] HRESULT MinimizeWindow([out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000001a), helpstring("method MaximizeWindow")] HRESULT MaximizeWindow([out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000001b), helpstring("method MoveWindow")] HRESULT MoveWindow( [in] VARIANT* x, [in] VARIANT* y, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000001c), helpstring("method ResizeWindow")] HRESULT ResizeWindow( [in] VARIANT* width, [in] VARIANT* height, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000001d), helpstring("method PositionWindow")] HRESULT PositionWindow( [in] VARIANT* x, [in] VARIANT* y, [in] VARIANT* width, [in] VARIANT* height, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000001e), helpstring("method SaveProgram")] HRESULT SaveProgram( [in] BSTR filename, [out, retval] long* res); [id(0x0000001f), helpstring("method Pause")] HRESULT Pause([out, retval] long* res); [id(0x00000020), helpstring("method Resume")] HRESULT Resume([out, retval] long* res); }; }; I hope you find the possibilities as fascinating as I do

Here's a simple barcode reader that utilizes a webcam and RoboRealm. As configured it simply reads the usual UPC codes commonly found on consumer retail items in the U.S.A., but could be configured for several other types. Barcode.au3

Just found a relatively simple means of doing vision on a PC. RoboRealm can do many interesting things, including object recognition, reading barcodes, controling servos (includes Phigets support), and is well suited to controlling robots. I've only just begun experimenting with it, so here's a simple example script to get you started with interfacing to it with AutoIt. You can get RoboRealm from http://www.roborealm.com Enjoy RoboRealm.au3