vispek-hc

SDK and command line for the Vispek HC1500 multispectral camera: one USB camera plus 17 switchable LED bands from 255 nm to 1050 nm. A capture is 17 frames taken one after another, one LED at a time.

中文说明

Status

Pre-release, under private development. Checked on one real HC1500 so far: serial protocol, frames, parameter lock, black level, timing, a scan of LEDs 5-17 and a white reference on white paper, and a scan of all 17 channels including the UV LEDs (see docs/acceptance/). A real reflectance standard has not been tried yet. Everything below runs today on the simulated device that ships with the package (--simulate). Camera parameters can be locked on macOS (verified on the device) and on Linux (built, not verified), not yet on Windows; see docs/platforms.md.

Install

Python 3.11 or newer, and ffmpeg on the PATH to read the camera.

From a checkout (the only way until the first release):

git clone https://github.com/vispek/vispek-hc-camera
cd vispek-hc-camera
uv sync                              # or: python -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -e .
uv run vispek-hc check --simulate    # the whole stack on the simulated device

Once released, install the command into its own environment with uv tool install vispek-hc or pipx install vispek-hc. A plain pip install into the system Python is refused on current Linux and macOS (PEP 668); use one of the two, or a virtual environment.

A first picture, without hardware

uv run vispek-hc demo -o demo

That scans an invented scene on the simulated device, makes a white reference, computes relative reflectance, writes rgb.png, cir.png, ndvi.png and spectra.csv into demo/, and checks the result against the scene it simulated (PASS). The same, step by step:

uv run vispek-hc record -o sample --simulate              # dark frame + LEDs 5-17
uv run vispek-hc reference white -o white --simulate      # the white board, same settings
uv run vispek-hc calibrate --white white -o calibration
uv run vispek-hc reflectance sample --calib calibration -o cube.npz
uv run vispek-hc view sample --calib calibration --mode ndvi -o ndvi.png

No real sample pictures are distributed with the software.

With a device

uv run vispek-hc check               # what is missing, with a hint for each problem
uv run vispek-hc record -o first     # about 10 s; macOS asks for camera access the first time
uv run vispek-hc view first -o first.png

When nothing is missing, check also lights LED 6 (520 nm, visible) for 0.3 s to confirm that the serial port and the camera belong to the same device; devices --pair runs that probe on its own. The camera is found by itself on all three systems; --camera names another. Add --json to any command for one machine-readable object on stdout (docs/cli.md).

Details and what --unlocked costs you: docs/platforms.md.

What the data looks like

A capture is a folder of lossless frames with capture.json. A cube has the raw frames and one number per pixel and band:

import json, numpy as np

z = np.load("cube.npz", allow_pickle=False)  # written by 'vispek-hc reflectance'
values = z["values"].astype(np.float32)  # (H, W, B), axes Y, X, B
valid = np.isfinite(values) & ((z["mask"] & 7) == 0)
rgb = z["rgb"]  # (H, W, B, 3) uint8 raw code values
band_ids, nm = z["band_ids"].tolist(), z["wavelengths_nm"]
meta = json.loads(str(z["metadata_json"]))

Or in Python from the start:

import vispek_hc

capture = vispek_hc.capture("first-scan", simulate=True)  # drop simulate with hardware
cube = capture.cube()  # .values (H, W, bands), .rgb, .mask, .bands

What the numbers are. Pixel values are 8-bit code values after the camera's own image processing. They are not linear radiance, relative reflectance is an index and not a physical reflectance, and band wavelengths are nominal LED centre wavelengths, not a sensor response. Read docs/calibration.md before you compare two scans.

Documentation

• AGENTS.md: for coding agents, and the quickest overview for people
• docs/cli.md, docs/api.md: commands and Python names
• docs/data-format.md, docs/calibration.md: files and numbers
• docs/integration-guide.md: writing your own control software, in any language, without this package: cables, the serial protocol with reference code, camera settings, what the device does that spoils data, how to record and calibrate. Self-contained; hand it to your coding agent
• docs/hardware.md, docs/protocol.md: the device
• docs/platforms.md, docs/troubleshooting.md
• examples/: 13 short scripts that run offline

License

Apache-2.0, see LICENSE and NOTICE. Trademarks: TRADEMARKS.md.