NIMROD: Gather Requirements for Neutron Camera Integration

[kjwoodsISIS]

As a developer, I want to gather and define the requirements for integrating the NIMROD neutron camera into IBEX.

As a NIMROD scientist I want my neutron camera to be integrated into IBEX, so that I can control the process of acquiring images from IBEX.

Background

The NIMROD scientists have acquired a neutron camera. In an earlier ticket, we implemented a feature to move the camera in/out of the beam (see #5988). The purpose of this ticket is to understand how the scientists would like to integrate the control of the camera and the acquisition of images into IBEX.

• Note from Instrument Scientist (TH):
  • Longer term we’d like to integrate the image/video capture from the neutron camera into IBEX. So for example, one could script using it and taking images. Could this be taken on as a shutdown project?

Things (not exhaustive) to consider are:

• How will the set up of the camera be controlled?
• How will the acquisition of images be controlled? What will trigger the acquisition of a new image? Will acquisition be automated and/or scripted?
• Do we need to capture metadata about each image? If so, what metadata is required? How will images be correlated to neutron data? (run number, date/time-stamp, ...?)
• Where will images be stored? It seems very likely that scientists will want to store them alongside neutron data, so that they can be archived in a similar fashion.

Acceptance Criteria

1. Discuss requirements with scientists & document our understanding of their requirements
2. Define acceptance criteria, based on the requirements, for the implementation ticket, namely NIMROD: Integrate Neutron Camera into IBEX #6095

Notes

1. At the time of writing (January 2021):
   • the make and model of the camera are unknown
   • the camera is controlled from a separate PC (a laptop)
     • it is not known whether the separate PC is provided by the camera manufacturer or not (my guess is probably not - it is more likely to be a generic laptop that is being used to run the camera's control software)
   • the camera is connected to the PC by a USB cable
     • it is not known whether the camera has an Ethernet port

[GRyall]

This remains a requirement, albeit not a priority compared to other work. currently linked to a laptop and running there using third party software. Device appears to be USB. Manual in the usual place.