ACAP SDK overview

AXIS Camera Application Platform (ACAP) offers the capability of building edge-based applications.

Summary

Here is a summary of the difference between Native SDK and Computer Vision solution:

  Native SDK Computer Vision solution (Deprecated)
Supported Products (see the full compatibility list) (see the full compatibility list)
Requirements Minimum AXIS OS 10.7 Minimum AXIS OS 10.7, SD card
Programming Languages C/C++ C/C++, Python, .NET
(and other mainstream languages)
App Development Docker Docker
App Deployment Web GUI or VAPIX API Docker
Examples Native SDK examples Computer Vision examples

ACAP Native SDK

The ACAP Native SDK is targeted towards users that want to develop plug-in style, event generating applications that fit well into a VMS centric system. This SDK offers high performance by integrating closely with AXIS OS and hardware. Already existing ACAP users should feel at home using this SDK and migrating from previous version ACAP version 3 to this SDK should be straightforward.

Use the ACAP Native SDK for building applications that run directly on Axis devices. This option is always applicable and fully supported.

Main use cases

  • Plug-in style applications generating events and metadata in a VMS centric system.
  • Extensions to the default camera feature set.

Content

See the ACAP Native SDK repository documentation for details.

Support

ACAP Native SDK is supported by most Axis products from ARTPEC-6 and up. See more information in the section about compatibility.

ACAP Computer Vision solution

Note:

  • New Axis products released on AXIS OS 12.x will not have container support.
  • All products with existing container support will be supported until end of 2031 when AXIS OS 2026 LTS reaches end of life.
  • The recommended way to build analytics, computer vision and machine learning applications on Axis devices with ACAP support, is to use the ACAP Native SDK. For usage see the acap-native-sdk-examples repo.
  • The ACAP Computer Vision SDK has been archived as its components have been refactored: utility libraries and scripts are now available in ACAP Runtime. For usage of the new setup, see the examples repository.

The ACAP Computer Vision solution allows container applications to run on Axis devices. It offers flexibility in choice of programming languages and enables easy integration with backend servers or cloud services. This solution is particularly useful for developers who prefer working with containerized applications or require specific environments that are not available in the Native SDK.

Depending on your target AXIS OS version, you have the following options:

  1. ACAP Computer Vision Solution (for AXIS OS 12.0 and later): Use the following components:
  2. ACAP Computer Vision SDK (for AXIS OS versions prior to 12.0): Use the ACAP Computer Vision SDK to build containerized applications that can connect to Axis APIs. Note that this SDK is deprecated and not available for AXIS OS 12.0 and later.

Main use cases

  • Multi-component, system solutions enabled by containerized applications.
  • Applications requiring specific runtime environments or libraries not available in the Native SDK.
  • Integration with standard IT infrastructure and cloud platforms.

Content

See the ACAP Computer Vision APIs page for more details.

Support

ACAP Computer Vision solution is supported on products with container support. See more information in the section about compatibility.

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