By combining the customization process with the existing Fusion series prism-based cameras, vision system designers can now tailor make a multispectral camera that looks at specific visible and NIR waveband ranges to meet the exact requirements of their vision applications. Using Flex-Eye, vision system designers will be able to customize the spectral locations and widths of the individual wavebands if the default wavebands of the Fusion camera standard models do not quite fit their specific requirements. This new approach will make vision inspection tasks or other multispectral imaging applications more efficient because a 2-CMOS or 3-CMOS camera fine-tuned to look at targeted wavebands (designed for a particular application) can reveal new imaging information that otherwise can be hidden.

Large number of combinations

The Fusion series Flex-Eye cameras offers a large number of different customization combinations for multispectral imaging applications, where new waveband combinations can lead to new or improved capabilities. The Flex-Eye cameras share the same performance capabilities of the standard Fusion series models. The standard models are prism-Based multispectral area scan cameras equipped with two or three Sony Pregius CMOS sensors offering either 1.6 or 3.2MP of resolution and a set of predefined wavebands – one that spans the entire visible spectrum (400 to 700nm) and one or two additional wavebands located in the NIR region (700 to 1000nm). A dichroic prism divides the incoming light to the separate sensors while maintaining a common optical path. This affords simultaneous capture of all wavebands with high frame rates and perfect pixel-to-pixel alignment. Depending on the user’s requirements, the two or three user-specified wavebands can all be located within the visible spectrum or can be placed at multiple locations across the 400 to 1000nm range. Models equipped with three 3.2MP sensors can run at up to 107fps at full resolution while cameras with two 3.2MP sensors can deliver up to 123fps. For models with three 1.6MP sensors, the maximum rate at full resolution is 213fps and with two 1.6MP sensors it’s 226fps.

Online camera configurator

As part of Flex-Eye customization process, JAI has developed an online configurator that makes it easy for customers to define and visualize their custom configuration on PCs or mobile devices. A few clicks or taps specifies the number of sensors, resolution, and whether Bayer or monochrome sensors are to be used in the visible spectrum. Then an GUI lets users place, stretch, or shrink their wavebands on a spectral chart. Wavebands as narrow as 25nm are supported, and built-in validation rules help to guide the user to a working configuration. The cameras are supported by a 10GBase-T (10GigE) interface equipped with integrated auto-negotiation technology, providing automatic backwards compatibility to NBase-T (5 and 2.5Gbps) and traditional 1000Base-T (1Gbps) output for customers running vision applications on these lower-speed Ethernet standards. In addition to 8-bit output, the cameras can provide 10-bit and 12-bit output, with synchronous or asynchronous operating modes across the multiple sensors. The 10GigE interface complies with the GigE Vision 2.0 standard and uses a multi-stream approach over a single cable to provide the multispectral wavebands for separate analysis or for combining on the host processor. The interface also supports the Precision Time Protocol (IEEE 1588) to enable network-level synchronization in multi-camera systems.

www.jai.com