Introduction

The Spinnaker application programming interface (API) is used to interface with FLIR's USB3 Vision and GigE Vision cameras.

Benefits of Spinnaker

The Spinnaker SDK is developed based on GenICam. GenICam provides a unified application programming interface to users of machine vision cameras. An introduction to GenICam can be found on EMVA’s website.

Some of the key benefits of using the Spinnaker SDK include:

Forward Compatibility

• Features are loaded dynamically from the camera. When we introduce new camera features, you can take advantage of them by simply recompiling your application.
• New machine vision standards are following GenICam (USB3 Vision, GigE Vision). Spinnaker allows you to write more generic code that can be easily migrated to future standards.
• Follows SFNC (standard feature naming convention).

New Graphical User Interface

• There is a new class of GUI controls that allows you to add individual GUI elements to your applications

Backwards Compatibility

• Source compatibility—Newer versions of Spinnaker will not require developers to change their existing code. You can simply recompile your application with a newer version of Spinnaker.
• Functional compatibility—Newer versions of Spinnaker will not remove any functional requirements.
• Binary compatibility—You can run C++ or C based applications by swapping new Spinnaker binaries (DLL) with the old binaries. (This only applies to Spinnaker binaries which have the same major and minor version.)

Differences between Spinnaker and FlyCapture2 Support

The Spinnaker SDK is recommended for users developing new vision applications. Spinnaker provides users with many powerful features to streamline their development process. Users of USB 2.0 and IEEE1394 cameras, or users looking for certain GPIO features, may still require FlyCapture2. The following table summarizes the differences between the features, cameras and platforms supported by Spinnaker and FlyCapture2.

		Spinnaker	FlyCapture2
Feature Support	Feature Search	Yes	No
	GenICam Compliant	Yes	No
	Dynamic Feature Loading	Yes	No
	Standard Feature Naming Convention	Yes	No
	Serial on GPIO	No	Yes
	PWM via GPIO	No	Yes
Camera Support	Blackfly S	Yes	No
	Oryx	Yes	No
	USB 3.1 Cameras GS3-U3, BFLY-U3, CM3-U3, FL3-U3	Yes	Yes
	GigE Cameras GS3-PGE, BFLY-PGE, FL3-GE	Yes	Yes
	USB 2.0 Cameras	No	Yes
	IEEE 1394 Cameras	No	Yes
	Ladybug (use the Ladybug SDK)	No	No
	Bumblebee (use the Triclops SDK)	No	No
Platform Support	Windows	Yes	Yes
	Linux	Yes	Yes
	ARM	Yes	Yes