There is a class of cameras known as "machine vision" because they are frequently used in image recognition on assembly lines and elsewhere. They tend to be a higher grade than the typical cheap webcam, with uncompressed output, C/CS lens mount, etc. These cameras are also used in astronomy.
Machine vision cameras with a Firewire (IEEE1394) interconnect are very well supported with a good standard (IIDC or DCAM) and an open source, multiple platform library, libdc1394.
But over the last few years, it is obvious that Firewire is losing in the marketplace. It is getting more difficult all the time to find motherboards with Firewire ports. But what to replace it with? Some manufacturers offer USB2.0 cameras, but there is no standard for uniform support. GigE (gigabit ethernet, obviously) is available, but there doesn't seem to be an open source package (If I'm wrong, please fill me in) and the throughput of gigabit no longer impresses.
Now a new standard has been released, USB3 Vision, and it looks very promising. USB3.0 has much better bandwidth than 2.0, and all the major machine vision vendors seem to be onboard with the standard. That includes Point Grey, Basler, National Instruments, The Imaging Source, et al.
The one piece to top it off would be a good open source implementation available on Linux. And it should be available as a package on Fedora and Red Hat, of course.
Machine vision cameras with a Firewire (IEEE1394) interconnect are very well supported with a good standard (IIDC or DCAM) and an open source, multiple platform library, libdc1394.
But over the last few years, it is obvious that Firewire is losing in the marketplace. It is getting more difficult all the time to find motherboards with Firewire ports. But what to replace it with? Some manufacturers offer USB2.0 cameras, but there is no standard for uniform support. GigE (gigabit ethernet, obviously) is available, but there doesn't seem to be an open source package (If I'm wrong, please fill me in) and the throughput of gigabit no longer impresses.
Now a new standard has been released, USB3 Vision, and it looks very promising. USB3.0 has much better bandwidth than 2.0, and all the major machine vision vendors seem to be onboard with the standard. That includes Point Grey, Basler, National Instruments, The Imaging Source, et al.
The one piece to top it off would be a good open source implementation available on Linux. And it should be available as a package on Fedora and Red Hat, of course.