A must-attend Virtual Event! Join us for all 6 Industrial Imaging Technology Sessions
While the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of trade shows and conferences across the world, we have learned to adapt in keeping up to date on new technologies for industrial machine vision and imaging. The engineering team at Teledyne Dalsahas continued to develop innovative imaging solutions during the pandemic. The team has developed dozens of new imaging components, which are driving advances in industrial machine vision, including machine learning and AI; extremely high-resolution and high-speed imaging; 3D sensing and multi-spectral imaging to name a few. Please join us for this multi-session, virtual event to learn more about the latest innovative imaging solutions.
Agenda Overview:Sign up for one, or all six of the various sessions
Tuesday November 17, 2020 9:00 AM (ET) – Clarity at High Speed – Performance Imaging Tuesday November 17, 2020, 10:30 AM (ET) – Connection is everything – Camera/Data Interfaces Wednesday November 18, 2020, 9:00 AM (ET) – AI & Embedded Vision – Driving System Innovation Wednesday November 18, 2020, 10:30 AM (ET) – New Advances in 3D Sensing Thursday November 19, 2020, 9:00 AM (ET) – Beyond Sight! Non-Visible and Multi-Spectral Imaging Thursday November 19, 2020, 10:30 AM (ET) – Evolving CMOS Sensor Technology
1st Vision’s sales engineers have an average of 20 years experience to assist in your camera selection. Representing thelargest portfolio of industry leading brands in imaging components, we can help you design the optimal vision solution for your application.
1stVisionis the largest distributor in North America for Teledyne DalsaImaging products. Contact us to discuss your application with our experienced technical advisors – CLICK HERE Full Data sheets on Dalsa product can be found HERE
Users of single chip color machine vision cameras have lots of choices in camera features. The following are a few issues relating to these types of cameras that users need to be aware of when they are choosing their camera type.
First, its important to understand how a “single chip” machine vision color camera creates a color image. Thanks to Bryce Bayer of Eastman Kodak, we have the “Bayer” filter mosaic filter pattern that generates a color image through interpolation which is the technique used in most machine vision cameras today.
Bayer Filter
From a macro view, using the Bayer filter, we collect light onto individual pixels through each of the red, green and blue filters which assigns intensity values. Using various interpolation methods, each pixel uses data from adjacent pixels to determine its color to generate a nice color image.
There are several considerations in color imaging during this process such as: 1 – Bayer conversion – Understanding this is important as it may effect the computer CPU load and image fidelity. 2 – Frame rates – Depending on the color format (ie. RGB vs Raw), you will need to understand how this effects the camera frame rate requirements and camera interfaces. 3 – Color formats – Depending if the application simply wants to identify a blue vs red part vs doing a more in depth color analysis will determine which color format is utilized.
1stVision has published a white paper addressing these considerations in the link below.
For any color application, there is various color camera technology that needs to be considered first.3-Chip Color machine vision cameras have advantages over Bayer color cameras in which color fidelity and resolution are superior. Additional resources on each aspect is below:
Block Diagram of 3 chip color camera – Courtesy of JAI
Color Fidelity – If your application requires high color fidelity and trying to detect small differences in color, 3 chip color cameras should be also considered. Learn more in this related blog HERE.
Resolution – Due to the interpolation in Bayer color cameras, the overall resolution is reduced significantly. In applications where resolution AND color are important, 3 chip color cameras provide these advantages. Comparison images and further explanation can be found in this blog HERE.
Give us some brief idea of your application and we will contact you to discuss camera options.
1st Vision’s sales engineers have over 100 years of combined experience to assist in your camera selection. With a large portfolio of lenses, cables, NIC card and industrial computers, we can provide a full vision solution!
This is a question we get asked frequently: “Why should we pay $200 plus for your board level machine vision camera when we can just get a webcam for $69?”
A great question and maybe you can, but what ARE the differences?
Basically, there are just a few questions you need to answer to see if you should use a webcam for you machine vision application which are as follows:
Do you need to program to integrate the video into an application with processing or control?
Do you need consistent image quality?
Are you doing computer vision (the computer is making decisions based on the images) or are you just viewing the images visually?
Do you care if the camera specifications change over your product’s life cycle?
Is the object under inspection moving?
Do you need to control when you take the picture or interface to a trigger or strobe?
Do you need to be able to choose what lens you will need?
If the answer to any of the above are YES, then a webcam will NOT work well or at all for your application. If the answers are NO, then by all means, you might be able to save money and just use a low-cost webcam. (You can stop reading here if you want, or continue for more details below).
Machine Vision Camera Software
Webcams do NOT come with a SDK as they are made to show video only. They normally provide a universal video driver, and also an application for viewing video.
Webcams have rolling shutter sensors which mean they cannot acquire images of moving objects without ‘smearing’ them. Industrial machine vision cameras use sensors with global shutters providing the ability to freeze the image to produce non smeared images of moving objects.
Example: Without adequate shutter speed with a global shutter, image will be blurry with motion
Trigger and Strobe Control
Webcams only have an interface to the USB data, whereas industrial machine vision cameras have hardware and software inputs and outputs. These allow for exact timing for a trigger to take a picture and a strobe to illuminate the object.
Example: External trigger control is tightly timed with IO including light flash. Courtesy of IDS Imaging
Camera Specs Changing over time
Webcams just need to show you video! In turn the manufacturers are not concerned if the sensors inside the camera change every six months. Whether the sensitivity changes by 10% makes no difference when you are just video conferencing with Grandma.
Industrial machine vision cameras are made with image sensors that don’t go obsolete every 6 months, but rather companies hope for 10 year life spans. It makes a huge difference if you are doing a computer vision algorithm that you have 5 man years of software development and the sensor’s sensitivity changes by even 1%.
Furthermore, the form factor of webcams change frequently as well. This doesn’t make a difference when it is just on your desk. It makes a huge difference when your camera and lens is fixtured in a machine that has 500 hours of CAD work to design, much less build. Moving the camera and lens 10cm might not be possible!
Do you need to choose your lens?
Webcams come with an integrated lens that is suitable for general viewing, and this lens is integrated with the camera and not changeable. Industrial machine vision cameras come with no lenses as not only do lenses come in a variety of focal lengths for different magnification, but also lenses coming in a variety of resolutions. Choosing a lens requires you to know the size of the sensor, your working distance, your field of view, and the pixel size. (See related educational blogs on lenses at end of this post)
What are your options for a low cost camera solution?
If you need industrial machine vision camera solutions with a solid SDK, long life cycles, at a low price, there several solutions to consider. Rolling shutter imagers are always lower price which are always a place to start along with USB2 interfaces. Read our previous blog HERE which outlines some specific models which are low cost. There is also a great new platform coming providing 5 Megapixel resolution with a rolling shutter imager, but with great performance for $280! Contact us for more details.
Give us some brief idea of your application and we will contact you to discuss camera options.
1st Vision’s sales engineers have over 100 years of combined experience to assist in your camera selection. With a large portfolio of lenses, cables, NIC card and industrial computers, we can provide a full vision solution!
10 GigE Vision compliant cameras are easy to integrate enabling more machine vision applications and image processing. Camera image sensors have continued to increase in resolution which requires higher bandwidth interfaces to achieve high frame rates. 10 GigE cameras are a great solution as implementation is less costly and complex versus camera link and CoaxPress.
Aside from the features of 10GiGE Vision, the Baumer VLXT series cameras are extremely feature rich and cost competitive making them an excellent choice for 10GigE Vision cameras.
11 Key Features are listed below with many being unique, solving more vision applications in 10 GigE Vision cameras
1 – True 10GigE bandwidth! – 2 – Liquid lens & Canon EF mount control 3 – Exposure times down to 1uS with Sony Sensors 4 – Power outputs (4x) for direct driving LED lights eliminating a lighting controller. 5 – IP67 Ratings and extended temperatures for harsh environments 6 – IEEE 1588 Precision Timing protocols for synchronized timing with multiple devices. 7 – Long cable lengths up to 55 meters (Cat 6) and 70+ meters with Cat 6a / 7 and longer with optional fiber optic interface. 8 – Standard low cost 10GigE NIC’s can be used opposed to some manufacturers requiring special NICs 9 – Fully GigE Vision compliant for easy implementation with the benefits of high bandwidths. Allows support of third party software libraries. 10 – RS232 support 11 – On board JPEG compression available
1st Vision’s sales engineers have over 100 years of combined experience to assist in your camera selection. With a large portfolio of lenses, cables, NIC card and industrial computers, we can provide a full vision solution!
