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And another year is ending and more industrial systems are relying on high resolution CMOS cameras. We have been sharing lots of updates on the latest in CMOS image sensors, advances with the CoaXPress interface, and our experiences in improving image quality with vision systems. Here are some of the most popular posts from 2016 in case you missed them. Subscribe to our blog to stay updated with the latest information.
Image Quality improvements
How to interpret the Dynamic Range and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) in image sensor and industrial camera specifications
With machine vision applications, some of the most important specifications beyond resolution and frame speed to determine whether the camera meet the measurement requirements, are full well capacity, Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), and dynamic range (DR) specifications. Interpreting these values from specification sheets can be challenging though.
How to remove light source and illumination optics artifacts from your camera image
In a Machine Vision inspection system you might use multiple light sources and/or multiple lenses. They might be switched on all at the same time, or they might switch on one after the other to obtain different illumination for subsequent image frames.
In such a configuration each light source, in combination with the illumination optics, might create a different non-uniform background profile on your camera. Preferably you want to get rid of this background profile because it disturbs your image as it is not originating from the object of interest. On your image you prefer to only observe light profiles that are caused by the object that is under inspection.
Reducing noise and increasing camera frame rate through binning – on sensor binning versus digital binning
There are always small changes (at no additional product cost) that can be made to increase the performance of your machine vision camera and thus to your overall inspection or metrology system. Perhaps there are low light levels in the system and you need to improve image quality. Binning which is adding the charge of 2 or more pixels together can both increase signal to noise ratio (SNR) and frame rate. Higher signal-to-noise ratio is achieved due to reduced read noise contributions and adding signals (pixels) together. By adding pixels together the noise component will be reduced due to averaging. Because fewer pixels are processed with binning, a higher camera frame rate can be achieved to increase the system throughput.
Upgrading systems with higher resolution and from CCD to CMOS
New CMOS image sensors with smaller pixel size can replace older cameras with no change in optics
For many global security systems, the optical format was decided by the initial choice of the image sensor, for instance a 1/3” VGA sensor or 2/3” HD CCD image sensors with pixel sizes of 6 or 7 µm. These legacy systems are now due for upgrades to take advantage of the sensitivity, lower read noise and higher pixel throughput of the latest CMOS image sensors.
CCD versus CMOS in low light global security applications demonstrated at SPIE DCS 2016
At the 2016 SPIE DCS 2016, Adimec demonstrated rugged CCD cameras and latest generation (Sony IMX250) CMOS based rugged cameras with color in low light.
3 Tricks to leverage new CMOS technology and upgrade from CCD
We have talked about the move from CCD to CMOS in global security systems with the increase in low light performance (better NIR sensitivity and lower noise) of the latest CMOS global shutter image sensors.
But upgrades are not just about improving performance. If many of the other components need to be changed as a result, the costs to upgrade may not be justified.
Applications
How the 24h of Le Mans profits from low light CMOS cameras
In the weekend of 18th and 19th of June, Porsche won the 24 Hours of Le Mans after Toyota got into problems in the final seven minutes. This year, for the first time, Adimec’s rugged security cameras with highly sensitive CMOS Global Shutter technology where used to broadcast the driver’s view on the road. The extreme environment inside the sports car with constantly changing levels of shock and vibration, changing temperatures and the requirement to have broadcast quality images during daytime and at night with low light make it a challenging environment for a camera.
Extreme High full well capacity camera to increase the sensitivity in interferometric microscopy – interview with MIT
Adimec interviews Poorya Hosseini of MIT to discuss the use of extreme high full well capacity camera in interferometric microscopy
Preparing for Vision 2016 in Stuttgart – Accurate fingerprint identification demo using a high full well capacity camera
In the last two weeks we posted two blogs related to our multi-camera over CoaXPress demo, this week we give some background information on one of our other demos which will show the Adimec Q-2HFW high full well camera. For the background information we interviewed Egidijus Auksorius from the Langevin institute. He will be present in the Adimec booth at Vision 2016 Stuttgart to show how he uses the Q-2HFW in a Full Field Optical Coherence Tomography (FF-OCT) setup to accurately measure your fingerprint.
