Live image server and client

A system for making multiple live digital video feeds simultaneously available to multiple applications running on a computer, comprising:

• a plurality of imaging devices providing said live multiple digital video feeds;
• a general purpose computing device;
• and
• a computer program comprising program modules executable by the computing device, wherein the computing device is directed by the program modules of the computer program to,
• determine what digital video feeds are active and assign a unique identifier to each feed that is to be made available to said multiple applications;
• for each video feed assigned an identifier,
• input image data associated with each frame of the video feed as it becomes available,
• maintain an image file comprising the inputted image data associated with the most recently available frame of the video feed, wherein said image file is accessible by each of the multiple applications, and
• assign a name to the image file;
• and
• maintain a camera directory file which is accessible by each of the multiple applications and which comprises the identifiers assigned to each digital video feed currently available to the multiple applications, as well as the name and a memory location of the named image file associated with each video feed.

A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for making live digital video feeds from one or more imaging devices simultaneously available to multiple applications running on a computing device, said computer-executable instructions comprising:

• determining what imaging devices are currently providing digital video feeds and assigning a unique identifier to each feed that is to be made available to said multiple applications;
• for each video feed assigned an identifier,
• maintaining an image file comprising image data associated with the most recently available frame of the video feed, wherein said image file is accessible by each of the multiple applications, and
• assigning a name to the image file;
• and
• maintaining a camera directory file which is accessible by each of the multiple applications that comprises the identifiers assigned to each digital video feed currently available to the multiple applications, as well as the name and a memory location of the named image file associated with each video feed.

A computer-implemented process for facilitating an application running on a computer in accessing at least one digital video feed which is simultaneously made available to multiple applications running on that computer, comprising using the computer to perform the following process actions:

• accessing a camera directory file comprising identifiers identifying each digital video feed currently available for access, as well as a name and memory location of an image file associated with each video feed which comprises image data associated with the most recent frame of the video feed available and an image index representing a frame sequence number;
• copying the image data, and reading and storing the image index, contained in the image file associated with a particular digital video feed that it is desired to access from the available video feeds listed in the camera directory file;
• and
• whenever it is desired to access another frame of the selected digital video feed,
• determining if the value of the image index has changed in comparison to the last, previously stored, image index value, and
• whenever it is determined that the image index value has changed, copying the image data, and reading and storing the image index, contained within the image file.