Kowa HC-V 1″ C-mount industrial lenses feature a patented design that ensures dependable performance, and consistently clear, crisp images with uniform brightness across the entire image, including the corners. These ruggedized lenses are built for use in harsh environments to withstand strong vibrations and impacts.
Interchangeable iris plates and a two-way reversible nut enable precise focus adjustments, and glued inner glass elements ensure stability. HC-V lenses are compatible with 1″ format sensors including Sony IMX174, CMOSIS CMV4000, and Sony IMX249 sensors. Designed for sensors with a pixel size as small as 5.0μm.
Or for expert assistance just call us at 978-474-0044.
Interchangeable iris plates
The HC-V patented design includes interchangeable iris plates. Secured by a lock nut, this insures precise focus that’s vibration resistant. Ideal for rugged industrial environments.
HC-V ruggedized lens series overview – Courtesy Kowa
How to change the iris plates
How to change the iris plates – Courtesy Kowa
Happy to help
We’re pleased to distribute Kowa lenses, and to advise customers on all aspects of machine vision component selection. Whether for sensor, camera, lens, lighting, software, or other components, tell us about your application, and we’ll be happy to guide you to optimal choices. By phone we’re at 978-474-0044, or key in a few application notes below and we’ll reach out to you at your convenience.
About you: We want to hear from you! We’ve built our brand on our know-how and like to educate the marketplace on imaging technology topics… What would you like to hear about?… Drop a line to info@1stvision.com with what topics you’d like to know more about.
Event-based vision (EBV) is really taking off. We provide an overview of the concepts and applications, as well as Prophesee products for EBV. So here’s a reminder diagram and short video for context, then we’ll dig into using Prophesee EBV kits with Raspberry Pi.
Event-based vision is a new paradigm – Courtesy Prophesee
Frame-based vs. Event-based approach to eye tracking – for example:
So I want to try a Prophesee Metavision Evaluation Kit!
1st vision is the official partner for Prophesee in the US, so start with a quote and purchase a Raspberry Pi 5 CSI modules with the 320×320 pixel GenX320 sensor. Or the GenX320 Raspberry Pi 5 Module.
The main difference between the two are that the M12 lens mount allows for changing lenses yourself, but if you prefer the M6 lens version, you receive a smaller front of the camera and a wider field of view. You can see the variations here: https://www.1stvision.com/cameras/GenX320-Starter-Kit-for-Rasberry-Pi-5
You’ll need to purchase the Raspberry Pi elsewhere, as 1st vision does not sell them.
Prophesee recommends the 8gb vision at a minimum, with the 16 recommended for on board vision computation.
Prophesee also recommends getting the active cooler, 27 W Power supply and NVME adapter.
A further note, the Metavision 5 SDK will not run on the Raspberry Pi 5, as the CPU power is insufficient for that computational load. You’ll need to use the Metavision 4 OpenEB SDK. So to be clear, the SDK choices are:
SDK for Raspberry Pi
SDK for PC
Metavision 4 OpenEB (no cost)
Metavision 5 SDK (bundled offer or standalone purchase)
Metavision SDK options by processor preference
If you would like to talk it through, just call us at 978-474-0044. Or use the link below to request we get back to you by either e-mail or phone.
About you: We want to hear from you! We’ve built our brand on our know-how and like to educate the marketplace on imaging technology topics… What would you like to hear about?… Drop a line to info@1stvision.com with what topics you’d like to know more about.
Gidel is a leading provider of high-performance FPGA-based imaging and vision solutions. Their product offerings, engineered for data intensive applications that demand real-time processing and minimal latency, include edge computers powered a Nvidia Jetson™ embedded computer, FPGA-based frame grabbers, recording & streaming systems, and a camera simulator for developing and testing imaging and vision applications. These solutions are available as out-of-the-box, open infrastructure, or fully tailored to your specific application requirements.
Products and features to help with High Dynamic Range
Below we show and describe useful features for applications where High Dynamic Range is needed, but typically are plagued by processing time and image degradation. We explain how Gidel can provide HDR in real time, compress and correct the image for a great image.
For High Dynamic Range (HDR) context, download our HDR whitepaper for an optional review. And/or let these images motivate the topic:
Courtesy Gidel
The aerial imaging application is just an example – the principle is widely applicable. They key context for HDR is that many imaging scenes are high-contrast, with deeply nuanced darker regions and equally nuanced brighter regions.
If one controlled for a single-exposure duration across all regions, whether by fixed timing or average pixel saturation, the one-exposure-fits-all image is likely to be a poor or unusable compromise – like the “original image” shown above left. One exposure can’t allow you to see the darks and brights. Either your exposure set to see the dark will saturate the brights… or if you optimize exposure to see the nuanced brights it will make the darks so dark you can’t distinguish them.
At the risk of sounding like an advertisement for laundry detergent about whiter whites and preserving colors, one doesn’t have to dwell on how HDR is achieved to recognize the HDR image shown above right is an improvement over the non-HDR original.
There are other helpful tools besides just HDR
HDR is an often powerful technique to effectively expand the dynamic range of the delivered image. But HDR isn’t always needed, and isn’t always the best tool, whether alone or in combination. Consider also tools and techniques like compression, gamma correction, and white balance – a bit more on each of these below – advantages Gidel can offer.
Compression
Another sometimes-useful technique is compression, reducing transmission volume (and time). Ideally one seeks lossless or low-loss compression, but that’s a tradeoff typically determined by assessing performance outcomes against any rigor or risk requirements for outlying cases. Often “good enough” and demonstrably reliable is the preferred choice.
If your application is NOT challenged by data transfer volume and time… whilst sending uncompressed images, then you don’t need compression. Conversely, might compression speed up your application for a competitive advantage?
Or thinking outside the box, might there be innovative applications doable with compression that aren’t possible without it? Let us help you do the math. Or try some applied testing.
Yet another digital imaging tool is gamma correction, an operation on luminance values. It was originally introduced to adapt digital images and map them better to human visual perception, due to the ways our eyes perceive brightness. BUT it also helps machine vision algorithms perform better by linearizing color and brightness data. That can improve accuracy in object tracking and color segmentation, for example.
Likewise for white balance. Here too the origin of white balance was to create a more pleasing image for human viewers of digitally rendered images, so that “white” objects appear white even if the light source skewed a bit blue or yellow, for example.
It turns out that white balance is also important for machine vision. By white balancing to the light source (if sunlight, it changes throughout the day), whether natural or artificial, color segmentation and mapping is improved. Whether doing inspection, object identification, or medical imaging, accurate color mapping is essential.
With HDR, Compression, white balance and Gamma correction
Throwing the whole kitchen sink at it, consider the following image pairs:
Right-hand image benefits from HDR, white-balance, gamma correction, and compression – Courtesy Gidel
Do it in real-time, on board the frame grabber from Gidel
The above illustrations are pretty compelling. But imagine if that had to happen on your host PC, operating on large raw data images, while trying to keep up with incoming data from the camera that might overwhelm the PC’s ability to achieve the desired machine vision decisions. That’s where Gidel’s FPGA frame grabbers excel. They receive the raw image stream from the camera, and do real-time value-added pre-processing – very fast – before passing the improved (and optionally compressed) image to the host software. So the workload on the host is reduced.
Better images – faster
With many engineering design challenges, it can be difficult or impossible to simultaneously satisfy “qualitatively better” as well as “faster performance” criteria. Indeed some conceptualizable applications may not be doable in practice due to such constraints. Or may not be affordable with common interfaces.
With Gidel’s FPGA frame grabbers, you get improved speed and high-quality actionable images – for high-performance applications that deliver.
About you: We want to hear from you! We’ve built our brand on our know-how and like to educate the marketplace on imaging technology topics… What would you like to hear about?… Drop a line to info@1stvision.com with what topics you’d like to know more about.
Recently we announced Allied Vision’s 5GigE SWIR Goldeye Pro cameras. Pretty cool. Pun intended. Click that link above for the 10,000 foot view of the camera series, features, and value proposition overall.
SWIR cameras come in both cooled and uncooled models
So you are already doing Short-Wave-InfraRed imaging, or think you might want to. For all the reasons and applications discuss in our SWIR cameras and applications knowledge-base article.
Cooled vs uncooled performance – what are the differences?
As with many engineering design choices and product selection options, for a given application one needs components that are good enough – perhaps with a little margin – to get the job done. But not overdesigned – as that would add cost, weight, and volume delivering no measurable benefit.
5GigE SWIR Goldeye Pro – Courtesy Allied Vision – a TKH Company
Thermoelectric cooling (TEC)
The InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) sensors used for SWIR imaging deliver the best images when temperature-stabilized. That’s provided by the thermoelectric cooling (TEC). That helps reduce dark noise and thermal current.
With TEC, see key performance metrics
For the Goldeye Pro G5-320, we snapshot key metrics from the datasheet:
Goldeye Pro G5-320 imaging metrics – Courtesy Allied Vision – a TKH Company
Compare to uncooled Goldeye G-033 metrics:
Uncooled Goldeye G-033 imaging metrics – Courtesy Allied Vision – a TKH Company
Sensor performance comparison summary
For background on sensor performance testing, review our tutorial on EMVA 1288 attributes and standards. There we go into the meaning of key terms like dark noise, dark current, saturation capacity, and dynamic range.
While the G-033 and G5-320 sensors above are different in size and release date, they are both InGaAs sensors, so share essential basic characteristics. And we can be sure that Allied Vision engineered each camera for the best possible performance relative to housing design, electronics positioning, and so forth.
Camera
G5-320
G-033
Temporal dark noise
183 e~
390 e~
Dark Current
8.9 ke~/s
430 ke~/s
Dark current and temporal dark noise mitigated by cooling an InGaAs sensor
What performance requirements does your SWIR application require?
We love to learn about client applications, and to guide you to best-fit selections for sensors, cameras, lenses, lighting, and software. Whether you are new to SWIR or experienced, let us help!
About you: We want to hear from you! We’ve built our brand on our know-how and like to educate the marketplace on imaging technology topics… What would you like to hear about?… Drop a line to info@1stvision.com with what topics you’d like to know more about.
