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MIL User Guide and examples


This user guide has been structured to allow you to start processing your images with as little information overload as possible. After testing the installation, as well as verifying that the required MIL header file and libraries are installed, it is expected that you read Part 2: MIL in a nutshell.

Part 3: 2D processing and analysis and Part 5: 3D processing and analysis, deal with enhancement, transformation and analysis operations. It is expected that you read only the chapters that you need; for the chapters on image processing, you can read only the required sections.

Part 4: 2D related information and Part 6: 3D related information go into more detail about setting up and managing your images, displays and digitizers, as well as describing other topics that might be useful but not critical to getting started.

Besides Chapters 1 and 2, this user guide has been written for using MIL under Microsoft Windows 7/10. Using MIL under Linux is very similar; refer to Chapter 47: Using MIL under Linux for a list of the differences.

In general, Host refers to the CPU in one's computer, while system refers to a set of hardware components capable of grabbing, storing, processing, and/or displaying images.

Descriptions of the individual functions are found in the MIL Reference.

Examples

Throughout this manual, examples have been provided to simplify concepts and get you started quickly. The source listing of most examples can be found on disk in the Matrox Imaging\Mil\Examples directory. To run and edit these examples, you can use Example Launcher, ExampleLauncher.exe, located in the \Matrox Imaging\Tools directory.

Note that some examples will display images in grayscale even if the images are grabbed with a color camera. This is due to the fact that those examples perform statistical and/or analysis operations that do not support color processing.

MIL's examples offer many advantages:

  • The MappStart example is very simple, but it allows you to quickly test MIL's installation and become familiar with the basics behind running a MIL application. The MappStart example allocates an application, opens communication with the default system, displays a welcoming message, pauses, and then closes communication with the system. MappStart also demonstrates error handling capabilities.

  • The examples use your default settings which have been specified at installation; therefore, very little time must be spent configuring your programming environment. However, if at some point you want to change the default settings, or are experiencing problems running the examples, your default settings can be changed on the Default Values tab of the MILConfig utility, (MILConfig.exe). This utility is located in the \Matrox Imaging\Tools directory. You can also change the default settings by clicking on the Change Defaults button in Example Launcher, which will take you directly to the Default Values tab of the MILConfig utility.

Note that some systems cannot run some of the examples because they do not have the hardware capability or enough memory. You should skip these examples or modify them.