Hydra Software Development Kit

The Hydra is accompanied by a simple Software Development Kit designed to make it as easy as possible to develop software for the Hydra and to integrate the camera within your existing C++ and .NET applications. The SDK includes .NET and Win32 APIs that allow low-level control over:

• frame acquisition rate
• exposure control (fully configurable automatic and manual exposure control)
• gamma correction
• black level
• white balance

The SDK also provides:

• high quality implementations of core image processing algoritms including Bayer pattern interpolation and stereo image rectification (for epipolar alignment)
• streaming image acquisition in a seperate thread (.NET only)
• simple demo applications (including source code) to help get you started with developing your own applications for the camera in C++ and C#

At present the camera SDK is available for the Windows platform. It is intended that versions of the SDK will be made available for the Linux and OSX platforms in the near future.

You can download the latest version of the SDK from the Download page.

Microsoft Research Stereo SDK

Based on the nVela API,  Microsoft Research in Cambridge has developed the Microsoft Research Stereo SDK designed specifically to accompany the Hydra stereo webcam. This SDK will include a variety of software designed to help users explore various applications of the stereo webcam, including an easy to use camera calibration application, a variety of dense stereo implementations written using C# (including source code), a high quality dense stereo implementation, and some simple Windows applications designed to demonstrate Microsoft's head tracking and background substitution ideas.