[PATCH 2/3] gstreamer: Generate controls from control_ids_*.yaml files

Nicolas Dufresne nicolas at ndufresne.ca
Wed Aug 7 21:13:08 CEST 2024


Hi,

I started inspecting the generated documentation. It is generally hard to get a
perfectly clean results, but let me comment few things. We can at least try some
improvement.

> Factory Details:
>   Rank                     primary (256)
>   Long-name                libcamera Source
>   Klass                    Source/Video
>   Description              Linux Camera source using libcamera
>   Author                   Nicolas Dufresne <nicolas.dufresne at collabora.com>

Thanks for this one!
> 
> Plugin Details:
>   Name                     libcamera
>   Description              libcamera capture plugin
>   Filename                 /home/nicolas/Sources/libcamera/build/src/gstreamer/libgstlibcamera.so
>   Version                  0.3.1+20-80a202bf
>   License                  LGPL
>   Source module            libcamera
>   Binary package           libcamera
>   Origin URL               https://libcamera.org
> 
> GObject
>  +----GInitiallyUnowned
>        +----GstObject
>              +----GstElement
>                    +----GstLibcameraSrc
> 
> Implemented Interfaces:
>   GstChildProxy
> 
> Pad Templates:
>   SRC template: 'src'
>     Availability: Always
>     Capabilities:
>       video/x-raw
>       image/jpeg
>       video/x-bayer
>     Type: GstLibcameraPad
>     Pad Properties:
>     
>       stream-role         : The selected stream role
>                             flags: readable, writable, changeable only in NULL or READY state
>                             Enum "GstLibcameraStreamRole" Default: 2, "video-recording"
>                                (1): still-capture    - libcamera::StillCapture
>                                (2): video-recording  - libcamera::VideoRecording
>                                (3): view-finder      - libcamera::Viewfinder
>       
>   
>   SRC template: 'src_%u'
>     Availability: On request
>     Capabilities:
>       video/x-raw
>       image/jpeg
>       video/x-bayer
>     Type: GstLibcameraPad
>     Pad Properties:
>     
>       stream-role         : The selected stream role
>                             flags: readable, writable, changeable only in NULL or READY state
>                             Enum "GstLibcameraStreamRole" Default: 2, "video-recording"
>                                (1): still-capture    - libcamera::StillCapture
>                                (2): video-recording  - libcamera::VideoRecording
>                                (3): view-finder      - libcamera::Viewfinder
>       
> 
> Element has no clocking capabilities.
> Element has no URI handling capabilities.
> 
> Pads:
>   SRC: 'src'
>     Pad Template: 'src'
> 
> Element Properties:
> 
>   ae-constraint-mode  : Specify a constraint mode for the AE algorithm to use. These determine how the measured scene brightness is adjusted to reach the desired target exposure. Constraint modes may be platform specific, and not all constraint modes may be supported. 

Inspect generally allow for pretty short description, but I do like having the full description, specially that as long as this element lives here, we are unlikely to pull in the GStreamer doc generator for it. Might be worth giving a try to line breaks, though.

>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AeConstraintMode" Default: 0, "normal"
>                            (0): normal           - Default constraint mode. This mode aims to balance the exposure of different parts of the image so as to reach a reasonable average level. However, highlights in the image may appear over-exposed and lowlights may appear under-exposed. 
>                            (1): highlight        - Highlight constraint mode. This mode adjusts the exposure levels in order to try and avoid over-exposing the brightest parts (highlights) of an image. Other non-highlight parts of the image may appear under-exposed. 
>                            (2): shadows          - Shadows constraint mode. This mode adjusts the exposure levels in order to try and avoid under-exposing the dark parts (shadows) of an image. Other normally exposed parts of the image may appear over-exposed. 
>                            (3): custom           - Custom constraint mode. 

Same here, would be nice to at least "try" something, but this is part of things that may of may not be easy. Everything else seems good.

>   
>   ae-enable           : Enable or disable the AE. See also: exposure-time, analogue-gain. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Boolean. Default: false
>   
>   ae-exposure-mode    : Specify an exposure mode for the AE algorithm to use. These specify how the desired total exposure is divided between the shutter time and the sensor's analogue gain. The exposure modes are platform specific, and not all exposure modes may be supported. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AeExposureMode" Default: 0, "normal"
>                            (0): normal           - Default exposure mode. 
>                            (1): short            - Exposure mode allowing only short exposure times. 
>                            (2): long             - Exposure mode allowing long exposure times. 
>                            (3): custom           - Custom exposure mode. 
>   
>   ae-flicker-detected : Flicker period detected in microseconds. The value reported here indicates the currently detected flicker period, or zero if no flicker at all is detected. When AeFlickerMode is set to FlickerAuto, there may be a period during which the value reported here remains zero. Once a non-zero value is reported, then this is the flicker period that has been detected and is now being cancelled. In the case of 50Hz mains flicker, the value would be 10000 (corresponding to 100Hz), or 8333 (120Hz) for 60Hz mains flicker. It is implementation dependent whether the system can continue to detect flicker of different periods when another frequency is already being cancelled. See also: ae-flicker-mode. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Integer. Range: -2147483648 - 2147483647 Default: 0 
>   
>   ae-flicker-mode     : Set the flicker mode, which determines whether, and how, the AGC/AEC algorithm attempts to hide flicker effects caused by the duty cycle of artificial lighting. Although implementation dependent, many algorithms for "flicker avoidance" work by restricting this exposure time to integer multiples of the cycle period, wherever possible. Implementations may not support all of the flicker modes listed below. By default the system will start in FlickerAuto mode if this is supported, otherwise the flicker mode will be set to FlickerOff. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AeFlickerMode" Default: 0, "off"

Is that accurate or accidental default ?

>                            (0): off              - No flicker avoidance is performed. 
>                            (1): manual           - Manual flicker avoidance. Suppress flicker effects caused by lighting running with a period specified by the AeFlickerPeriod control. See also: ae-flicker-period. 
>                            (2): auto             - Automatic flicker period detection and avoidance. The system will automatically determine the most likely value of flicker period, and avoid flicker of this frequency. Once flicker is being corrected, it is implementation dependent whether the system is still able to detect a change in the flicker period. See also: ae-flicker-detected. 
>   
>   ae-flicker-period   : Manual flicker period in microseconds. This value sets the current flicker period to avoid. It is used when AeFlickerMode is set to FlickerManual. To cancel 50Hz mains flicker, this should be set to 10000 (corresponding to 100Hz), or 8333 (120Hz) for 60Hz mains. Setting the mode to FlickerManual when no AeFlickerPeriod has ever been set means that no flicker cancellation occurs (until the value of this control is updated). Switching to modes other than FlickerManual has no effect on the value of the AeFlickerPeriod control. See also: ae-flicker-mode. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Integer. Range: -2147483648 - 2147483647 Default: 0 
>   
>   ae-locked           : Report the lock status of a running AE algorithm. If the AE algorithm is locked the value shall be set to true, if it's converging it shall be set to false. If the AE algorithm is not running the control shall not be present in the metadata control list. See also: ae-enable. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Boolean. Default: false

As this one is a status, it should only be readable, without the writable/controllable. If I'm not mistaken, you get this value withing the finalized request, would be nice enhancement to notify our users of the change using g_notify() and/or bus messages.

>   
>   ae-metering-mode    : Specify a metering mode for the AE algorithm to use. The metering modes determine which parts of the image are used to determine the scene brightness. Metering modes may be platform specific and not all metering modes may be supported. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AeMeteringMode" Default: 0, "centre-weighted"
>                            (0): centre-weighted  - Centre-weighted metering mode. 
>                            (1): spot             - Spot metering mode. 
>                            (2): matrix           - Matrix metering mode. 
>                            (3): custom           - Custom metering mode. 

>From the doc, this seems pretty obscure. Shouldn't "custom" comes with another control ? Perhaps we introduce a mask to hide the controls that are not yet usable or that the usage isn't obvious and may need special case or rework ?

>   
>   af-metering         : Instruct the AF algorithm how it should decide which parts of the image should be used to measure focus. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AfMetering" Default: 0, "auto"
>                            (0): auto             - The AF algorithm should decide for itself where it will measure focus. 
>                            (1): windows          - The AF algorithm should use the rectangles defined by the AfWindows control to measure focus. If no windows are specified the behaviour is platform dependent. 
>   
>   af-mode             : Control to set the mode of the AF (autofocus) algorithm. An implementation may choose not to implement all the modes. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AfMode" Default: 0, "manual"

Is that appropriate default ? Of course does not matter if there is no focus on the target. I wonder how you get to know if focus is there or not ...

>                            (0): manual           - The AF algorithm is in manual mode. In this mode it will never perform any action nor move the lens of its own accord, but an application can specify the desired lens position using the LensPosition control. In this mode the AfState will always report AfStateIdle. If the camera is started in AfModeManual, it will move the focus lens to the position specified by the LensPosition control. This mode is the recommended default value for the AfMode control. External cameras (as reported by the Location property set to CameraLocationExternal) may use a different default value. 
>                            (1): auto             - The AF algorithm is in auto mode. This means that the algorithm will never move the lens or change state unless the AfTrigger control is used. The AfTrigger control can be used to initiate a focus scan, the results of which will be reported by AfState. If the autofocus algorithm is moved from AfModeAuto to another mode while a scan is in progress, the scan is cancelled immediately, without waiting for the scan to finish. When first entering this mode the AfState will report AfStateIdle. When a trigger control is sent, AfState will report AfStateScanning for a period before spontaneously changing to AfStateFocused or AfStateFailed, depending on the outcome of the scan. It will remain in this state until another scan is initiated by the AfTrigger control. If a scan is cancelled (without changing to another mode), AfState will return to AfStateIdle. 
>                            (2): continuous       - The AF algorithm is in continuous mode. This means that the lens can re-start a scan spontaneously at any moment, without any user intervention. The AfState still reports whether the algorithm is currently scanning or not, though the application has no ability to initiate or cancel scans, nor to move the lens for itself. However, applications can pause the AF algorithm from continuously scanning by using the AfPause control. This allows video or still images to be captured whilst guaranteeing that the focus is fixed. When set to AfModeContinuous, the system will immediately initiate a scan so AfState will report AfStateScanning, and will settle on one of AfStateFocused or AfStateFailed, depending on the scan result. 
>   
>   af-pause            : This control has no effect except when in continuous autofocus mode (AfModeContinuous). It can be used to pause any lens movements while (for example) images are captured. The algorithm remains inactive until it is instructed to resume. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AfPause" Default: 0, "immediate"
>                            (0): immediate        - Pause the continuous autofocus algorithm immediately, whether or not any kind of scan is underway. AfPauseState will subsequently report AfPauseStatePaused. AfState may report any of AfStateScanning, AfStateFocused or AfStateFailed, depending on the algorithm's state when it received this control. 
>                            (1): deferred         - This is similar to AfPauseImmediate, and if the AfState is currently reporting AfStateFocused or AfStateFailed it will remain in that state and AfPauseState will report AfPauseStatePaused. However, if the algorithm is scanning (AfStateScanning), AfPauseState will report AfPauseStatePausing until the scan is finished, at which point AfState will report one of AfStateFocused or AfStateFailed, and AfPauseState will change to AfPauseStatePaused. 
>                            (2): resume           - Resume continuous autofocus operation. The algorithm starts again from exactly where it left off, and AfPauseState will report AfPauseStateRunning. 
>   
>   af-pause-state      : Only applicable in continuous (AfModeContinuous) mode, this reports whether the algorithm is currently running, paused or pausing (that is, will pause as soon as any in-progress scan completes). Any change to AfMode will cause AfPauseStateRunning to be reported. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable

Does not seem writable.

>                         Enum "AfPauseState" Default: 0, "running"
>                            (0): running          - Continuous AF is running and the algorithm may restart a scan spontaneously. 
>                            (1): pausing          - Continuous AF has been sent an AfPauseDeferred control, and will pause as soon as any in-progress scan completes (and then report AfPauseStatePaused). No new scans will be start spontaneously until the AfPauseResume control is sent. 
>                            (2): paused           - Continuous AF is paused. No further state changes or lens movements will occur until the AfPauseResume control is sent. 
>   
>   af-range            : Control to set the range of focus distances that is scanned. An implementation may choose not to implement all the options here. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AfRange" Default: 0, "normal"
>                            (0): normal           - A wide range of focus distances is scanned, all the way from infinity down to close distances, though depending on the implementation, possibly not including the very closest macro positions. 
>                            (1): macro            - Only close distances are scanned. 
>                            (2): full             - The full range of focus distances is scanned just as with AfRangeNormal but this time including the very closest macro positions. 
>   
>   af-speed            : Control that determines whether the AF algorithm is to move the lens as quickly as possible or more steadily. For example, during video recording it may be desirable not to move the lens too abruptly, but when in a preview mode (waiting for a still capture) it may be helpful to move the lens as quickly as is reasonably possible. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AfSpeed" Default: 0, "normal"
>                            (0): normal           - Move the lens at its usual speed. 
>                            (1): fast             - Move the lens more quickly. 
>   
>   af-state            : Reports the current state of the AF algorithm in conjunction with the reported AfMode value and (in continuous AF mode) the AfPauseState value. The possible state changes are described below, though we note the following state transitions that occur when the AfMode is changed. If the AfMode is set to AfModeManual, then the AfState will always report AfStateIdle (even if the lens is subsequently moved). Changing to the AfModeManual state does not initiate any lens movement. If the AfMode is set to AfModeAuto then the AfState will report AfStateIdle. However, if AfModeAuto and AfTriggerStart are sent together then AfState will omit AfStateIdle and move straight to AfStateScanning (and start a scan). If the AfMode is set to AfModeContinuous then the AfState will initially report AfStateScanning. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable

Seems read-only.

>                         Enum "AfState" Default: 0, "idle"
>                            (0): idle             - The AF algorithm is in manual mode (AfModeManual) or in auto mode (AfModeAuto) and a scan has not yet been triggered, or an in-progress scan was cancelled. 
>                            (1): scanning         - The AF algorithm is in auto mode (AfModeAuto), and a scan has been started using the AfTrigger control. The scan can be cancelled by sending AfTriggerCancel at which point the algorithm will either move back to AfStateIdle or, if the scan actually completes before the cancel request is processed, to one of AfStateFocused or AfStateFailed. Alternatively the AF algorithm could be in continuous mode (AfModeContinuous) at which point it may enter this state spontaneously whenever it determines that a rescan is needed. 
>                            (2): focused          - The AF algorithm is in auto (AfModeAuto) or continuous (AfModeContinuous) mode and a scan has completed with the result that the algorithm believes the image is now in focus. 
>                            (3): failed           - The AF algorithm is in auto (AfModeAuto) or continuous (AfModeContinuous) mode and a scan has completed with the result that the algorithm did not find a good focus position. 
>   
>   af-trigger          : This control starts an autofocus scan when AfMode is set to AfModeAuto, and can also be used to terminate a scan early. It is ignored if AfMode is set to AfModeManual or AfModeContinuous. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AfTrigger" Default: 0, "start"
>                            (0): start            - Start an AF scan. Ignored if a scan is in progress. 
>                            (1): cancel           - Cancel an AF scan. This does not cause the lens to move anywhere else. Ignored if no scan is in progress. 

This one is missing something to make sense, at least from GStreamer point of view. When you are not starting or cancelling, what value this control should change to ? That question might be relevant for libcamera globally.

Without this third state, I would say this one should not be there, and replace with action signals.

>   
>   analogue-gain       : Analogue gain value applied in the sensor device. The value of the control specifies the gain multiplier applied to all colour channels. This value cannot be lower than 1.0. Setting this value means that it is now fixed and the AE algorithm may not change it. Setting it back to zero returns it to the control of the AE algorithm. See also: exposure-time, ae-enable. Todo: Document the interactions between AeEnable and setting a fixed value for this control. Consider interactions with other AE features, such as aperture and aperture/shutter priority mode, and decide if control of which features should be automatically adjusted shouldn't better be handled through a separate AE mode control. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 

I'm not confident there is no range, would be nice if we can align to something sensible (might need yaml changes of course).

>   
>   awb-enable          : Enable or disable the AWB. See also: colour-gains. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Boolean. Default: false

Should be on by default (if not, we should do that in gst ;-P).

>   
>   awb-locked          : Report the lock status of a running AWB algorithm. If the AWB algorithm is locked the value shall be set to true, if it's converging it shall be set to false. If the AWB algorithm is not running the control shall not be present in the metadata control list. See also: awb-enable. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Boolean. Default: false

Read-only.

>   
>   awb-mode            : Specify the range of illuminants to use for the AWB algorithm. The modes supported are platform specific, and not all modes may be supported. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AwbMode" Default: 0, "auto"
>                            (0): auto             - Search over the whole colour temperature range. 
>                            (1): incandescent     - Incandescent AWB lamp mode. 
>                            (2): tungsten         - Tungsten AWB lamp mode. 
>                            (3): fluorescent      - Fluorescent AWB lamp mode. 
>                            (4): indoor           - Indoor AWB lighting mode. 
>                            (5): daylight         - Daylight AWB lighting mode. 
>                            (6): cloudy           - Cloudy AWB lighting mode. 
>                            (7): custom           - Custom AWB mode. 

Again, unclear how custom can be used.

>   
>   brightness          : Specify a fixed brightness parameter. Positive values (up to 1.0) produce brighter images; negative values (up to -1.0) produce darker images and 0.0 leaves pixels unchanged. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 

So this time the range is documented, we need a machine readable form.

>   
>   camera-name         : Select by name which camera to use.
>                         flags: readable, writable, changeable only in NULL or READY state
>                         String. Default: null
>   
>   colour-correction-matrix: The 3x3 matrix that converts camera RGB to sRGB within the imaging pipeline. This should describe the matrix that is used after pixels have been white-balanced, but before any gamma transformation. The 3x3 matrix is stored in conventional reading order in an array of 9 floating point values. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Default: "<  >"
>                         GstValueArray of GValues of type "gfloat"

The type only allow flat list, but as its a matrix I was expecting

"< < 1, 2, 3 >,
   < 4, 5, 6 >,
   < 7, 8, 9 > >"

That being said I would be fine with flat raster data:

"< 1, 2, 3,
   4, 5, 6,
   7, 8, 9 >"

The down side is for bindings. Consider Python, the first would create a collection that you can access with matrix[Y][X] and more importantly can store into numpy.matrix.

A comment for all list "< >" syntax. The usage and serialization syntax is not easy to guess. For matrix, if we had the identity matrix as default instead of an empty list, that would help. Otherwise we need a way to extend the doc for GStreamer usage.

>   
>   colour-gains        : Pair of gain values for the Red and Blue colour channels, in that order. ColourGains can only be applied in a Request when the AWB is disabled. See also: awb-enable. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Default: "<  >"
>                         GstValueArray of GValues of type "gfloat"

Again the type allow for flat list, but I think we have "< < r1, r2 >, < b1, b2 > >" ?

>   
>   colour-temperature  : Report the current estimate of the colour temperature, in kelvin, for this frame. The ColourTemperature control can only be returned in metadata. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Integer. Range: -2147483648 - 2147483647 Default: 0 

read-only.

>   
>   contrast            : Specify a fixed contrast parameter. Normal contrast is given by the value 1.0; larger values produce images with more contrast. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 

Range needed programmatically.

>   
>   digital-gain        : Digital gain value applied during the processing steps applied to the image as captured from the sensor. The global digital gain factor is applied to all the colour channels of the RAW image. Different pipeline models are free to specify how the global gain factor applies to each separate channel. If an imaging pipeline applies digital gain in distinct processing steps, this value indicates their total sum. Pipelines are free to decide how to adjust each processing step to respect the received gain factor and shall report their total value in the request metadata. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 
>   
>   draft-ae-precapture-trigger: Control for AE metering trigger. Currently identical to ANDROID_CONTROL_AE_PRECAPTURE_TRIGGER. Whether the camera device will trigger a precapture metering sequence when it processes this request. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AePrecaptureTrigger" Default: 0, "idle"
>                            (0): idle             - The trigger is idle. 
>                            (1): start            - The pre-capture AE metering is started by the camera. 
>                            (2): cancel           - The camera will cancel any active or completed metering sequence. The AE algorithm is reset to its initial state. 

Perhaps we can skip over draft- as this could later break our interface. We can also add an env to include them ?

>   
>   draft-ae-state      : Control to report the current AE algorithm state. Currently identical to ANDROID_CONTROL_AE_STATE.  Current state of the AE algorithm. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AeState" Default: 0, "inactive"
>                            (0): inactive         - The AE algorithm is inactive. 
>                            (1): searching        - The AE algorithm has not converged yet. 
>                            (2): converged        - The AE algorithm has converged. 
>                            (3): locked           - The AE algorithm is locked. 
>                            (4): flash-required   - The AE algorithm would need a flash for good results 
>                            (5): precapture       - The AE algorithm has started a pre-capture metering session. See also: ae-precapture-trigger. 
>   
>   draft-awb-state     : Control to report the current AWB algorithm state. Currently identical to ANDROID_CONTROL_AWB_STATE.  Current state of the AWB algorithm. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "AwbState" Default: 0, "state-inactive"
>                            (0): state-inactive   - The AWB algorithm is inactive. 
>                            (1): state-searching  - The AWB algorithm has not converged yet. 
>                            (2): converged        - The AWB algorithm has converged. 
>                            (3): locked           - The AWB algorithm is locked. 
>   
>   draft-color-correction-aberration-mode: Control to select the color correction aberration mode. Currently identical to ANDROID_COLOR_CORRECTION_ABERRATION_MODE.  Mode of operation for the chromatic aberration correction algorithm. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "ColorCorrectionAberrationMode" Default: 0, "off"
>                            (0): off              - No aberration correction is applied. 
>                            (1): fast             - Aberration correction will not slow down the frame rate. 
>                            (2): high-quality     - High quality aberration correction which might reduce the frame rate. 
>   
>   draft-lens-shading-map-mode: Control to report if the lens shading map is available. Currently identical to ANDROID_STATISTICS_LENS_SHADING_MAP_MODE. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "LensShadingMapMode" Default: 0, "ff"
>                            (0): ff               - No lens shading map mode is available. 
>                            (1): n                - The lens shading map mode is available. 
>   
>   draft-max-latency   : The maximum number of frames that can occur after a request (different than the previous) has been submitted, and before the result's state becomes synchronized. A value of -1 indicates unknown latency, and 0 indicates per-frame control. Currently identical to ANDROID_SYNC_MAX_LATENCY. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Integer. Range: -2147483648 - 2147483647 Default: 0 
>   
>   draft-noise-reduction-mode: Control to select the noise reduction algorithm mode. Currently identical to ANDROID_NOISE_REDUCTION_MODE.  Mode of operation for the noise reduction algorithm. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "NoiseReductionMode" Default: 0, "off"
>                            (0): off              - No noise reduction is applied 
>                            (1): fast             - Noise reduction is applied without reducing the frame rate. 
>                            (2): high-quality     - High quality noise reduction at the expense of frame rate. 
>                            (3): minimal          - Minimal noise reduction is applied without reducing the frame rate. 
>                            (4): z-s-l            - Noise reduction is applied at different levels to different streams. 
>   
>   draft-pipeline-depth: Specifies the number of pipeline stages the frame went through from when it was exposed to when the final completed result was available to the framework. Always less than or equal to PipelineMaxDepth. Currently identical to ANDROID_REQUEST_PIPELINE_DEPTH. The typical value for this control is 3 as a frame is first exposed, captured and then processed in a single pass through the ISP. Any additional processing step performed after the ISP pass (in example face detection, additional format conversions etc) count as an additional pipeline stage. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Integer. Range: -2147483648 - 2147483647 Default: 0 
>   
>   draft-sensor-rolling-shutter-skew: Control to report the time between the start of exposure of the first row and the start of exposure of the last row. Currently identical to ANDROID_SENSOR_ROLLING_SHUTTER_SKEW 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Integer64. Range: -9223372036854775808 - 9223372036854775807 Default: 0 
>   
>   draft-test-pattern-mode: Control to select the test pattern mode. Currently identical to ANDROID_SENSOR_TEST_PATTERN_MODE. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "TestPatternMode" Default: 0, "off"
>                            (0): off              - No test pattern mode is used. The camera device returns frames from the image sensor. 
>                            (1): solid-color      - Each pixel in [R, G_even, G_odd, B] is replaced by its respective color channel provided in test pattern data. Todo: Add control for test pattern data. 
>                            (2): color-bars       - All pixel data is replaced with an 8-bar color pattern. The vertical bars (left-to-right) are as follows; white, yellow, cyan, green, magenta, red, blue and black. Each bar should take up 1/8 of the sensor pixel array width. When this is not possible, the bar size should be rounded down to the nearest integer and the pattern can repeat on the right side. Each bar's height must always take up the full sensor pixel array height. 
>                            (3): color-bars-fade-to-gray - The test pattern is similar to TestPatternModeColorBars, except that each bar should start at its specified color at the top and fade to gray at the bottom. Furthermore each bar is further subdevided into a left and right half. The left half should have a smooth gradient, and the right half should have a quantized gradient. In particular, the right half's should consist of blocks of the same color for 1/16th active sensor pixel array width. The least significant bits in the quantized gradient should be copied from the most significant bits of the smooth gradient. The height of each bar should always be a multiple of 128. When this is not the case, the pattern should repeat at the bottom of the image. 
>                            (4): pn9              - All pixel data is replaced by a pseudo-random sequence generated from a PN9 512-bit sequence (typically implemented in hardware with a linear feedback shift register). The generator should be reset at the beginning of each frame, and thus each subsequent raw frame with this test pattern should be exactly the same as the last. 
>                            (256): custom1          - The first custom test pattern. All custom patterns that are available only on this camera device are at least this numeric value. All of the custom test patterns will be static (that is the raw image must not vary from frame to frame). 
>   
>   exposure-time       : Exposure time (shutter speed) for the frame applied in the sensor device. This value is specified in micro-seconds. Setting this value means that it is now fixed and the AE algorithm may not change it. Setting it back to zero returns it to the control of the AE algorithm. See also: analogue-gain, ae-enable. Todo: Document the interactions between AeEnable and setting a fixed value for this control. Consider interactions with other AE features, such as aperture and aperture/shutter priority mode, and decide if control of which features should be automatically adjusted shouldn't better be handled through a separate AE mode control. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Integer. Range: -2147483648 - 2147483647 Default: 0 
>   
>   exposure-value      : Specify an Exposure Value (EV) parameter. The EV parameter will only be applied if the AE algorithm is currently enabled. By convention EV adjusts the exposure as log2. For example EV = [-2, -1, 0.5, 0, 0.5, 1, 2] results in an exposure adjustment of [1/4x, 1/2x, 1/sqrt(2)x, 1x, sqrt(2)x, 2x, 4x]. See also: ae-enable. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 
>   
>   focus-fo-m          : Reports a Figure of Merit (FoM) to indicate how in-focus the frame is. A larger FocusFoM value indicates a more in-focus frame. This singular value may be based on a combination of statistics gathered from multiple focus regions within an image. The number of focus regions and method of combination is platform dependent. In this respect, it is not necessarily aimed at providing a way to implement a focus algorithm by the application, rather an indication of how in-focus a frame is. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Integer. Range: -2147483648 - 2147483647 Default: 0 
>   
>   frame-duration      : The instantaneous frame duration from start of frame exposure to start of next exposure, expressed in microseconds. This control is meant to be returned in metadata. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Integer64. Range: -9223372036854775808 - 9223372036854775807 Default: 0 
>   
>   frame-duration-limits: The minimum and maximum (in that order) frame duration, expressed in microseconds. When provided by applications, the control specifies the sensor frame duration interval the pipeline has to use. This limits the largest exposure time the sensor can use. For example, if a maximum frame duration of 33ms is requested (corresponding to 30 frames per second), the sensor will not be able to raise the exposure time above 33ms. A fixed frame duration is achieved by setting the minimum and maximum values to be the same. Setting both values to 0 reverts to using the camera defaults. The maximum frame duration provides the absolute limit to the shutter speed computed by the AE algorithm and it overrides any exposure mode setting specified with controls::AeExposureMode. Similarly, when a manual exposure time is set through controls::ExposureTime, it also gets clipped to the limits set by this control. When reported in metadata, the control expresses the minimum and maximum frame durations used after being clipped to the sensor provided frame duration limits. See also: ae-exposure-mode. See also: exposure-time. Todo: Define how to calculate the capture frame rate by defining controls to report additional delays introduced by the capture pipeline or post-processing stages (ie JPEG conversion, frame scaling). Todo: Provide an explicit definition of default control values, for this and all other controls. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Default: "<  >"
>                         GstValueArray of GValues of type "gint64"
>   
>   gamma               : Specify a fixed gamma value. Default must be 2.2 which closely mimics sRGB gamma. Note that this is camera gamma, so it is applied as 1.0/gamma. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 
>   
>   hdr-channel         : This value is reported back to the application so that it can discover whether this capture corresponds to the short or long exposure image (or any other image used by the HDR procedure). An application can monitor the HDR channel to discover when the differently exposed images have arrived. This metadata is only available when an HDR mode has been enabled. See also: hdr-mode. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "HdrChannel" Default: 0, "none"
>                            (0): none             - This image does not correspond to any of the captures used to create an HDR image. 
>                            (1): short            - This is a short exposure image. 
>                            (2): medium           - This is a medium exposure image. 
>                            (3): long             - This is a long exposure image. 
>   
>   hdr-mode            : Control to set the mode to be used for High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging. HDR techniques typically include multiple exposure, image fusion and tone mapping techniques to improve the dynamic range of the resulting images. When using an HDR mode, images are captured with different sets of AGC settings called HDR channels. Channels indicate in particular the type of exposure (short, medium or long) used to capture the raw image, before fusion. Each HDR image is tagged with the corresponding channel using the HdrChannel control. See also: hdr-channel. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Enum "HdrMode" Default: 0, "off"
>                            (0): off              - HDR is disabled. Metadata for this frame will not include the HdrChannel control. 
>                            (1): multi-exposure-unmerged - Multiple exposures will be generated in an alternating fashion. However, they will not be merged together and will be returned to the application as they are. Each image will be tagged with the correct HDR channel, indicating what kind of exposure it is. The tag should be the same as in the HdrModeMultiExposure case. The expectation is that an application using this mode would merge the frames to create HDR images for itself if it requires them. 
>                            (2): multi-exposure   - Multiple exposures will be generated and merged to create HDR images. Each image will be tagged with the HDR channel (long, medium or short) that arrived and which caused this image to be output. Systems that use two channels for HDR will return images tagged alternately as the short and long channel. Systems that use three channels for HDR will cycle through the short, medium and long channel before repeating. 
>                            (3): single-exposure  - Multiple frames all at a single exposure will be used to create HDR images. These images should be reported as all corresponding to the HDR short channel. 
>                            (4): night            - Multiple frames will be combined to produce "night mode" images. It is up to the implementation exactly which HDR channels it uses, and the images will all be tagged accordingly with the correct HDR channel information. 
>   
>   lens-position       : Acts as a control to instruct the lens to move to a particular position and also reports back the position of the lens for each frame. The LensPosition control is ignored unless the AfMode is set to AfModeManual, though the value is reported back unconditionally in all modes. This value, which is generally a non-integer, is the reciprocal of the focal distance in metres, also known as dioptres. That is, to set a focal distance D, the lens position LP is given by \f$LP = \frac{1\mathrm{m}}{D}\f$ For example: 0 moves the lens to infinity. 0.5 moves the lens to focus on objects 2m away. 2 moves the lens to focus on objects 50cm away. And larger values will focus the lens closer. The default value of the control should indicate a good general position for the lens, often corresponding to the hyperfocal distance (the closest position for which objects at infinity are still acceptably sharp). The minimum will often be zero (meaning infinity), and the maximum value defines the closest focus position. Todo: Define a property to report the Hyperfocal distance of calibrated lenses. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 
>   
>   lux                 : Report an estimate of the current illuminance level in lux. The Lux control can only be returned in metadata. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 
>   
>   name                : The name of the object
>                         flags: readable, writable
>                         String. Default: "libcamerasrc0"
>   
>   parent              : The parent of the object
>                         flags: readable, writable
>                         Object of type "GstObject"
>   
>   saturation          : Specify a fixed saturation parameter. Normal saturation is given by the value 1.0; larger values produce more saturated colours; 0.0 produces a greyscale image. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 
>   
>   sensor-black-levels : Reports the sensor black levels used for processing a frame, in the order R, Gr, Gb, B. These values are returned as numbers out of a 16-bit pixel range (as if pixels ranged from 0 to 65535). The SensorBlackLevels control can only be returned in metadata. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Default: "<  >"
>                         GstValueArray of GValues of type "gint"
>   
>   sensor-temperature  : Temperature measure from the camera sensor in Celsius. This is typically obtained by a thermal sensor present on-die or in the camera module. The range of reported temperatures is device dependent. The SensorTemperature control will only be returned in metadata if a thermal sensor is present. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 
>   
>   sensor-timestamp    : The time when the first row of the image sensor active array is exposed. The timestamp, expressed in nanoseconds, represents a monotonically increasing counter since the system boot time, as defined by the Linux-specific CLOCK_BOOTTIME clock id. The SensorTimestamp control can only be returned in metadata. Todo: Define how the sensor timestamp has to be used in the reprocessing use case. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Integer64. Range: -9223372036854775808 - 9223372036854775807 Default: 0 
>   
>   sharpness           : A value of 0.0 means no sharpening. The minimum value means minimal sharpening, and shall be 0.0 unless the camera can't disable sharpening completely. The default value shall give a "reasonable" level of sharpening, suitable for most use cases. The maximum value may apply extremely high levels of sharpening, higher than anyone could reasonably want. Negative values are not allowed. Note also that sharpening is not applied to raw streams. 
>                         flags: readable, writable, controllable
>                         Float. Range:   -3.402823e+38 -    3.402823e+38 Default:               0 


I think my comments begins to be repetitive, and if we solve the earlier issues
we will solve them all. The main thing is that the yaml should explicitly define
more stuff rather then relying to text. And using that, we can easily adjust
GStreamer properties. A final note, not all of these will be supported. I was
wondering if we should add an extra property that tells use which one are
actually supported ? We don't need anything fency, a "/" seperate list in a
string or similar could do. We can also go for GstStructure.

Nicolas


More information about the libcamera-devel mailing list