Companies release many new vision products

This special product section is an online extra companion to ''Vision Systems: Eyes in the Factory,'' cover story in the August 2002 issue of Control Engineering. Several companies have recently released new vision products. Here are brief descriptions of some of the major offerings.

By Gary Mintchell August 21, 2002

This special product section is an online extra companion to ‘Vision Systems: Eyes in the Factory,’ cover story in the August 2002 issue of Control Engineering. Click here to read the complete article .

Several companies have recently released neew vision products. Here are brief descriptions of some of the major offerings. For more information, visit the company’s web site.

Sick’s (Minneapolis, Minn.) ICS 100 intelligent camera sensor features IP 64 housing and integrated illumination and lens enhancing mounting. Its sensor allows inspection of glossy objects and the processor features speeds of up to 2.5 msec. Users teach an image for comparison, and the sensor compares actual images to the taught image triggering an output as required. Algorithms include pixel sum, minimum pixel sum, multi-area elaluation, and shape check. Applications include pattern matching, presence monitoring, shape verification, position and dimension verification, object detection, and completeness verification. https://www.sickusa.com

JAI (Laguna Hills, Calif.) has released three cameras. CV-A1 combines megapixel resolution (1,392 x 1,040) analog output with remote, switchless set-up capability via RS-232 interface. It operates at 16 frames per second, with software-configurable partial scan capability allowing the rate to be increased to a maximum of 124 frames per second at reduce resolution. Meanwhile the company has enhanced its CV-M7 (color) and CV-M4 (black and white) megapixel cameras by increasing resolution from 1.3 to 1.45 million pixels, sensitivity by 6 dB over the previous, and smear by 2 dB. The new models are designated CV-M7+ and CV-M4+. https://www.jai.com

PLDApplications (PLDA, Aix-en-Provence, France) is now shipping CXSYS, a 6U CompactPCI full HotSwap smart frame grabber. Features include 64-bit, 66 MHz CompactPCI interface, embedded processing, on board buffering and storage, accept standard PMC daughter cards, , quad-channel fiber optic interface option. Software drivers and programming APIs include Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, Sun Solaris, VRTX, and Linux. https://www.plda.com

Concepts In Computing (CIC, South Beloit, Ill.) has enhanced its EconoCR industrial optical character recognition (OCR) software making it compatible with several new environments and processors. It performs identification, matching, sorting, tracking, and verification of products as they move through various laboratory, manufacturing, or material handling processes. Originally offered as a C++ library of OCR related routines for Intel Pentium-compatible PCs or machine vision implementation platforms running Microsoft Windows 9X or NT, an enhanced version is now available for National Instruments’ LabView environment and for implementation on a variety of products powered by Analog Devices’ 21XX family of Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Texas Instruments’ TMS320C62XX family of DSPs, Motorola’s PowerPCs, and Hitachi’s SH4 processor. The product is also featured as an integral component of DVT Series 600 SmartImage sensors, certain DVT Legend 5XX Series sensors, and DVT’s automatic identification-specific SmartReader units, as ‘tools’ or optional modules for Data Translation’s DT Vision Foundry, Western Vision Software’s HLImage++, and Coreco Imaging’s Sherlock products. https://www.c-in-c.com

Data Translation (Marlboro, Mass.) has announced DT Vision Foundry 3.5, the latest release of its machine vision software. DT Vision Foundry’s new tools and features include analysis of 2D bar codes in 360 degrees of rotation; networking with DCOM-based applications, polar unwrap tool, graphic script creation tool, match tool, enhanced digital I/O tool supports the latest Data Translation boards, a Device Manager, and dockable toolbars. https://www.datatranslation.com

Cognex (Natick, Mass.) has released a report entitled, Evaluating Geometric Pattern Matching Software: 10 Questions You Must Ask. The report provides answers to some of the most important questions to consider about pattern matching yield, accuracy, speed, and model training, and offers valuable tips on how to evaluate specific product features. https://www.cognex.com

Coreco Imaging (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) has released Sapera 4.1, enhanced version of the company’s software library for high-performance image acquisition, processing and analysis. Optimized for Intel’s MMX, SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions) and SSE-2 instruction sets, Sapera 4.1 features more than 300 functions. This release incorporates a number of added support features that speed the application development process including Smart Series, a collection of application specific libraries for pattern matching (Smart Search), optical character recognition (Smart OCR) and 1D/2D barcode (Smart Matrix). Newly added TWAIN support enables image capture from Coreco Imaging frame grabbers without additional programming. https://www.imaging.com

National Instruments (Austin, Tex.) introduces PXI-1409 multichannel monochrome image acquisition board. The product combines high-speed PCI bus with advanced timing and triggering features to provide asynchronous acquisition and integration with motion and data acquisition (DAQ) devices. User-configurable resolution with 8-bit (256 grayscale) or 10-bit (1024 grayscale) acquisition is available and the product is compatible with double-speed progressive scan cameras at speeds up to 60 frames per second. Included are four video inputs and hardware calibration to ensure consistent and repeatable image acquisition. It enables easy change of types of cameras in an application. https://www.ni.com

Wintriss Engineering’s (San Diego, Calif.) OPSIS 5150HL line scan camera acquires a 5,150 pixel line at 40 megapixels per second, corrects for lighting conditions in real time, and provides fiber channel (ANSI X3.230) connection to a host at 400 Mbps all in a NEMA 12 package. https://www.weco.com

American Eltec (Las Vegas, Nev.) has introduced PC_EYE_2+ quad channel, RGB PCI-bus frame grabber that can digitize four video input channels into four separate images in parallel. It also features opto-isolated trigger inputs with additional outputs used to trigger cameras or strobe lights. https://www.eltec.com

Omron’s (Schaumburg, Ill.) F250 four camera vision sensor features rotation position compensation searches while maintaining speeds of up to 6,000 parts per minute. New Edge Code technology enhances positioning. Other features include Ethernet port, fine matching algorithm, enhanced model matching algorithm, and expandable memory using flash-RAM. https://www.info.omron.com/

Adept Technology’s (San Jose, Calif.) SmartController CX supports AdeptVision sAVI and includes serial, Fast Ethernet, DeviceNet, and Adept’s FireWire-based SmartServo network interfaces for motion and vision applications. https://www.adept.com