Disposable machine vision cameras

Scorpion Vision software is a new generation machine vision technology that utilisies the power of a PC thus reducing the need to invest in proprietary, hardware based industrial vision technologies.

Take the latest generation of machine vision technology, in the form of Scorpion Vision software and add a PC.

Then find a couple of USB web cams, or perhaps a decent firewire camera.

Add lighting, integrate well and test.

The result? A powerful machine vision system with multiple, disposable sensors.

The evolution of the PC and the ability of software that is able to exploit the power of the modern processor gives us optical technology at a fantastic price that just wasnt possible only a few years ago.

Scorpion Vision software is a new generation machine vision technology that is PC based, utilising the power of the ubiquitous PC and reducing the need to invest heavily in proprietary, hardware based industrial vision technologies.

Most modern PCs come equipped with 1394 (Firewire) and USB interfaces.

The wealth of visual input devices available on the market gives the Scorpion Vision engineer a phenomenal range of products to choose from.

Providing the device of choice comes with Windows WDM drivers, the software can be interfaced with even the cheapest USB camera.

The capability of these low cost cameras is of course variable and sometimes perhaps questionable but when the task at hand is to recognise a pattern or just a colour or perhaps movement, how much quality is required? However, quality cameras are available for a lot less than £100.

The Logitech Pro 4000 is one such device and this supports live video capture up to 640 x 480 pixels (VGA CCD), still image capture up to 1280 x 960 pixels and a Frame rate of up to 30 frames per second.

This type of hardware would suffice for many vision scenarios.

If the sensor, due to its close proximity to the action is sometimes in peril why use an expensive dedicated visual sensor when a low cost device will do? Moving the investment further away from the danger zone makes perfect sense.

For example, the PC can be protected within an industrial air conditioned cabinet at some distance away from the production line, process control and monitoring can be carried out at similar speeds to those of existing frame grabbing and dedicated industrial vision systems.

With Scorpion, replacing the cameras takes minutes and if the system needs recalibration with a newer camera then this need take no time at all, thereby reducing downtime and ongoing maintenance costs whilst simultaneously improving quality control.

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