Vendors tout performance gains at vision show
The Vision Show 2008, June 10–12, Boston, MA, AIA, www.machinevisiononline.org.
Lawrence D. Maloney, Contributing Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 6/12/2008 11:51:00 AM
BOSTON, MA—While Corning automation expert Babak Raj described in his keynote speech at The Vision Show a spectacular future for vision technology, including “imaging pills” for diagnosing disease, vendors at the show floor unveiled technology advances for the here and now.
Among a flurry of new camera designs, FLIR Systems debuted its A325, which it claims is the world’s first plug-and-play infrared camera, compatible with both GigE Vision and GenICam standards. Key application: process monitoring on production lines.
Dalsa added two new models, one color (C1410) and one monochrome (M1410), to its Genie line of area-scan cameras. Operating at 22 fps, the cameras feature a Sony CCD sensor and targeted pharmaceutical, food and PCB inspection. The company also showed a new Camera Link version of its Spyder 3 line of dual scan cameras that are popular in web processes, such as textiles, wood and steel production.
Aiming at customers needing high resolution at low cost, CIS America showed color and monochrome versions of a 5-megapixel, GigE camera (VCC-F60 and VCC-G60), which customers are already using for applications from medical diagnostics to aerial mapping. In addition, the company’s new VCC-V905 smart security camera features a fully-programmable DSP that make it versatile enough to track objects, as well as recognize faces and optical characters.
Specializing in FireWire-compatible cameras for economical machine vision, Allied Vision Technologies introduced its new Stingray line, which features a heat-dissipating design, resolutions up to 2 megapixels and data transfer rates up to 84 fps. Also offering cost-saving solutions, EPIX is offering its new PIXCI S14 system, which includes four “Silicon Video” cameras, cabling and frame grabbers for $5295. Finally, PPT Vision positions its tiny A20 Impact camera, priced at $2995 and including more than 100 programs, as offering the power of a vision system in a sensor footprint.
Among other camera innovations, Adimec introduced the Opal-1000, a 1-megapixel CCD Camera Link model that operates at up to 120 fps for such applications as metrology and semiconductor manufacturing. Now being planned: a ruggedized version for the military.
National Instruments showed its new 1722 and 1741 smart cameras with built-in lighting controller and an onboard processor that can the entire suite of NI vision algorithms. NI also debuted the model 8234, a dual-gigabit vision board for GigE and PXI Express. New additions to Sony’s XCI family of smart cameras feature a high-performance CCD sensor capable of 90 fps—a 50% improvement over the previous generation of Sony cameras. Sony also announced that Cognex will certify its upcoming VisionPro software release to run on Sony smart cameras.
Matrox used the show to announced Design Assistant 2.0, a new version of its software package for the Iris E-Series smart cameras. Users can now create flowcharts of their applications with steps for image processing, blob analysis, and pattern recognition based on normalized grayscale correlation. In addition, the company announced a new release of its imaging library, MIL 9.0, which is designed to take advantage of high-performance graphics processor units and high-performance computing clusters.
For embedded applications requiring a very small footprint, LMI Technologies launched its FireSync platform, which gives OEMs and system integrators the hardware and software components to build their own vision sensors. Pleora, whose customers include both OEMs and camera manufacturers, unveiled its iPORT NTx-Mini IP in-camera engine, which measures just 42 mm x 42 mm and offers a 1 Gbps data transfer rate.
For use in harsh environments, SICK launched its Inspection Vision Sensor, which can check for quality and fill, no matter what angle or orientation the product comes down the line. The device provides a simple pass/fail output.
Besides its new Bobcat line of industrial cameras with Camera Link interface, Imperx showed its new Framelink Express, a Camera Link frame grabber designed especially for ExpressCard laptops. Euresys also debuted its Grablink Quickpack image acquisition and pre-processing board for color area-scan inspection in PCB, food and pharmaceutical applications.
In lighting, StockerYale showcased its new Lasiris HPS laser, earmarked for machine vision applications that require a high degree of line uniformity. The company also introduced its Flat-Top2 laser beam shaping module for such uses as flow cytometry instruments and military targeting. Edmund Optics introduced a new Telecentric illuminator that provides high contrast capability to detect minute defects. And to ease maintenance chores for customers, Advanced Illumination introduced a new line of high-brightness LEDs designed to last 50,000 hours.
Long life also is the key feature promoted by Intercon 1 in its new high-flex Camera Link cable. Targeting tough-duty applications like vision-guided robots, the IF-CLCP-XX –P cable system is designed to surpass five million flexes.
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