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Connect to remote cameras

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This article shows you how to connect to one or more remote cameras and get a MediaFrameSourceGroup object that allows you to read frames from each camera. For more information on reading frames from a media source, see Process media frames with MediaFrameReader. For more information on pairing with devices, see Pair devices.

Note

The features discussed in this article are available starting with Windows 10, version 1903.

Create a DeviceWatcher class to watch for available remote cameras

The DeviceWatcher class monitors the devices available to your app and notifies your app when devices are added or removed. Get an instance of DeviceWatcher by calling DeviceInformation.CreateWatcher, passing in an Advanced Query Syntax (AQS) string that identifies the type of devices you want to monitor. The AQS string specifying network camera devices is the following:

@"System.Devices.InterfaceClassGuid:=""{B8238652-B500-41EB-B4F3-4234F7F5AE99}"" AND System.Devices.InterfaceEnabled:=System.StructuredQueryType.Boolean#True"

Note

The helper method MediaFrameSourceGroup.GetDeviceSelector returns an AQS string that will monitor locally-connected and remote network cameras. To monitor only network cameras, you should use the AQS string shown above.

When you start the returned DeviceWatcher by calling the Start method, it will raise the Added event for every network camera that is currently available. Until you stop the watcher by calling Stop, the Added event will be raised when new network camera devices become available and the Removed event will be raised when a camera device becomes unavailable.

The event args passed into the Added and Removed event handlers are a DeviceInformation or a DeviceInformationUpdate object, respectively. Each of these objects has an Id property that is the identifier for the network camera for which the event was fired. Pass this ID into the MediaFrameSourceGroup.FromIdAsync method to get a MediaFrameSourceGroup object that you can use to retrieve frames from the camera.

Remote camera pairing helper class

The following example shows a helper class that uses a DeviceWatcher to create and update an ObservableCollection of MediaFrameSourceGroup objects to support data binding to the list of cameras. Typical apps would wrap the MediaFrameSourceGroup in a custom model class. Note that the helper class maintains a reference to the app's CoreDispatcher and updates the collection of cameras within calls to RunAsync to ensure that the UI bound to the collection is updated on the UI thread.

Also, this example handles the DeviceWatcher.Updated event in addition to the Added and Removed events. In the Updated handler, the associated remote camera device is removed from and then added back to the collection.

class RemoteCameraPairingHelper : IDisposable
{
    private CoreDispatcher _dispatcher;
    private DeviceWatcher _watcher;
    private ObservableCollection<MediaFrameSourceGroup> _remoteCameraCollection;
    public RemoteCameraPairingHelper(CoreDispatcher uiDispatcher)
    {
        _dispatcher = uiDispatcher;
        _remoteCameraCollection = new ObservableCollection<MediaFrameSourceGroup>();
        var remoteCameraAqs = @"System.Devices.InterfaceClassGuid:=""{B8238652-B500-41EB-B4F3-4234F7F5AE99}"" AND System.Devices.InterfaceEnabled:=System.StructuredQueryType.Boolean#True";
        _watcher = DeviceInformation.CreateWatcher(remoteCameraAqs);
        _watcher.Added += Watcher_Added;
        _watcher.Removed += Watcher_Removed;
        _watcher.Updated += Watcher_Updated;
        _watcher.Start();
    }
    public void Dispose()
    {
        _watcher.Stop();
        _watcher.Updated -= Watcher_Updated;
        _watcher.Removed -= Watcher_Removed;
        _watcher.Added -= Watcher_Added;
    }
    public IReadOnlyList<MediaFrameSourceGroup> FrameSourceGroups
    {
        get { return _remoteCameraCollection; }
    }
    private async void Watcher_Updated(DeviceWatcher sender, DeviceInformationUpdate args)
    {
        await RemoveDevice(args.Id);
        await AddDeviceAsync(args.Id);
    }
    private async void Watcher_Removed(DeviceWatcher sender, DeviceInformationUpdate args)
    {
        await RemoveDevice(args.Id);
    }
    private async void Watcher_Added(DeviceWatcher sender, DeviceInformation args)
    {
        await AddDeviceAsync(args.Id);
    }
    private async Task AddDeviceAsync(string id)
    {
        var group = await MediaFrameSourceGroup.FromIdAsync(id);
        if (group != null)
        {
            await _dispatcher.RunAsync(CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal, () =>
            {
                _remoteCameraCollection.Add(group);
            });
        }
    }
    private async Task RemoveDevice(string id)
    {
        await _dispatcher.RunAsync(CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal, () =>
        {
            var existing = _remoteCameraCollection.FirstOrDefault(item => item.Id == id);
            if (existing != null)
            {
                _remoteCameraCollection.Remove(existing);
            }
        });
    }

#include <winrt/Windows.Devices.Enumeration.h>
#include <winrt/Windows.Foundation.Collections.h>
#include <winrt/Windows.Media.Capture.Frames.h>
#include <winrt/Windows.UI.Core.h>
using namespace winrt;
using namespace winrt::Windows::Devices::Enumeration;
using namespace winrt::Windows::Foundation::Collections;
using namespace winrt::Windows::Media::Capture::Frames;
using namespace winrt::Windows::UI::Core;

struct RemoteCameraPairingHelper
{
    RemoteCameraPairingHelper(CoreDispatcher uiDispatcher) :
        m_dispatcher(uiDispatcher)
    {
        m_remoteCameraCollection = winrt::single_threaded_observable_vector<MediaFrameSourceGroup>();
        auto remoteCameraAqs =
            LR"(System.Devices.InterfaceClassGuid:=""{B8238652-B500-41EB-B4F3-4234F7F5AE99}"")"
            LR"(AND System.Devices.InterfaceEnabled:=System.StructuredQueryType.Boolean#True)";
        m_watcher = DeviceInformation::CreateWatcher(remoteCameraAqs);
        m_watcherAddedAutoRevoker = m_watcher.Added(winrt::auto_revoke, { this, &RemoteCameraPairingHelper::Watcher_Added });
        m_watcherRemovedAutoRevoker = m_watcher.Removed(winrt::auto_revoke, { this, &RemoteCameraPairingHelper::Watcher_Removed });
        m_watcherUpdatedAutoRevoker = m_watcher.Updated(winrt::auto_revoke, { this, &RemoteCameraPairingHelper::Watcher_Updated });
        m_watcher.Start();
    }
    ~RemoteCameraPairingHelper()
    {
        m_watcher.Stop();
    }
    IObservableVector<MediaFrameSourceGroup> FrameSourceGroups()
    {
        return m_remoteCameraCollection;
    }
    winrt::fire_and_forget Watcher_Added(DeviceWatcher /* sender */, DeviceInformation args)
    {
        co_await AddDeviceAsync(args.Id());
    }
    winrt::fire_and_forget Watcher_Removed(DeviceWatcher /* sender */, DeviceInformationUpdate args)
    {
        co_await RemoveDevice(args.Id());
    }
    winrt::fire_and_forget Watcher_Updated(DeviceWatcher /* sender */, DeviceInformationUpdate args)
    {
        co_await RemoveDevice(args.Id());
        co_await AddDeviceAsync(args.Id());
    }
    Windows::Foundation::IAsyncAction AddDeviceAsync(winrt::hstring id)
    {
        auto group = co_await MediaFrameSourceGroup::FromIdAsync(id);
        if (group)
        {
            co_await m_dispatcher;
            m_remoteCameraCollection.Append(group);
        }
    }
    Windows::Foundation::IAsyncAction RemoveDevice(winrt::hstring id)
    {
        co_await m_dispatcher;

        uint32_t ix{ 0 };
        for (auto const&& item : m_remoteCameraCollection)
        {
            if (item.Id() == id)
            {
                m_remoteCameraCollection.RemoveAt(ix);
                break;
            }
            ++ix;
        }
    }

private:
    CoreDispatcher m_dispatcher{ nullptr };
    DeviceWatcher m_watcher{ nullptr };
    IObservableVector<MediaFrameSourceGroup> m_remoteCameraCollection;
    DeviceWatcher::Added_revoker m_watcherAddedAutoRevoker;
    DeviceWatcher::Removed_revoker m_watcherRemovedAutoRevoker;
    DeviceWatcher::Updated_revoker m_watcherUpdatedAutoRevoker;
};