Smart Cameras gain ground

Ettlingen – Ever since the first intelligent camera for industrial environments was introduced in 1995, these devices have been used in more and more applica-tions. Smart Cameras from Vision Components, for example, integrate a CCD sensor, a frame grabber and a processor as well as image memory and all re-quired interfaces in a compact, robust housing.

Due to increasingly powerful CPUs, they are suitable for complex tasks and render additional PC-based im-age processing systems unnecessary. Today, Smart Cameras exceed the tradi-tional range of tasks for industrial cameras, operating e.g. as intelligent sensor cameras together with a light barrier. Designed as complete image processing systems, they offer various advantages in comparison to conventional optical sensors which have a limited functionality. Moreover, the Smart Cameras have small dimensions similar to mobile telephones.

Other than PC-based systems, they do not require a switching cabinet, thereby opening up new integration possibilities for users. One example is the new VC44xx camera series which has a 1 GHz (8,000 MIPS) DSP from Texas Instruments and belongs to the fastest intelligent cameras on the market. VC44xx cameras feature a RS232 and an Ethernet interface as well as an external trigger input that also serves as an incremental encoder input. Optionally, their 64 MB storage capacity can be extended to 128 MB.