The PIKE's got more power!
Pike Performance Update
AVT’s flagship is getting new camera functions for more throughput and lower development and manufacturing costs for image processing systems.
With IEEE 1394b technology the Pike family has been Allied Vision Technologies’ contribution to the “double speed” class – meaning the class in which all applications require the camera to have a data rate between 33 and 63 Mbytes per second.
Now, this family has received additional “performance camera functions”, which make it possible to achieve cost, time, and speed advantages for various applications.
Speed increase modes (packed 12 bit): up to 33% faster
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The FireWire standard (IEEE 1394) developed in 1995 was designed and optimized for image data of 8 and 16 bits per pixel. For images with 10, 12, or 14 bits per pixel, there are unused reserves in this standard, which unnecessarily limit the transfer rate. With the Pike Performance Update, AVT will utilize these unused reserves and integrate a “packed 12-bit” mode into PIKE.
Anti-smear function: less distortion for error-free image analysis
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Short exposure times and lots of light are important prerequisites in many applications. Unfortunately, this is a challenge for an image sensor. In these settings, CCD sensors tend toward a distortion effect called “smearing”, in which vertical stripes form.
The Pike Performance Update provides help: The anti-smear function distinctly reduces the smear effect and permits error-free analysis of the image.
4x and 8x binning: lots of sensitivity
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Binning is the name of the function in which the camera combines neighboring pixels. When two pixels are combined, the image’s resolution is cut in half, but the sensitivity* is increased by 6dB (+ 100%, meaning it is doubled) and the signal-noise interval increases by 3dB (+ 41%).
Nowadays, nearly every AVT camera is equipped with a similar binning function, which can combine pixels both vertically and horizontally. The Pike has now been expanded to include 4x and 8x binning. That means that per axis 4 or 8 neighboring pixels are added together. In this way, startlingly high sensitivities and noise intervals can be reached, which cannot be achieved via a normal photographic mode.
Example: Pike F-421B
- Full sensor resolution: 2048 x 2048
- 8x binning (vertical and horizontal)
-> à New effective resolution: 256 x 256
-> à Improved sensitivity: factor 64, +36dB
-> à Improves signal noise interval: factor 8, +18dB
SIS - “Secure Image Signature”: valuable assistance for system development
This function stamps the transferred image with various important data and camera settings, which were valid at the time of exposure, in a machine-readable form. On the PC side, answers to various questions are captured and engrained onto the image so that they are always available:
- When was the photo taken? Which camera provided the image?
- Were exposure time and area of interest set?
- Which signal level was set at the input and output ports at the time of exposure?
- Were all the images of the Pike transferred successfully, or could there have been, for example, overtriggering?
- etc.
The SIS function simplifies the control and handling of the large volume of data, monitoring the trigger modules of the vision system, and opening up new possibilities in the development and debugging phase. With SIS, developers have the opportunity to get their system into an error-free mass production status faster and can reduce complexity and costs at the same time.
Sequence mode: greater speed through prefabricated parameter lists
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How can throughput be increased and optimized through automated inspection? What is the fastest way to get a camera to provide a sequence of images with different settings? Cameras with fast image sensors are no rarity in the industry. But when it comes to fast and simple resetting of parameters from image to image, the camera’s performance limits are often quickly encountered.
The sequence mode of Pike will set new standards in this area: A list inside the camera enables Pike to store over 30 different parameter sets in advance. In the automated inspection process, all that is then required is the trigger, in order to process the list in the camera; it is no longer necessary to reset the parameters. Since the processing of the list can be stopped via an input port of the camera, event-based camera control is still possible.
Quick format change modes: fast intuitive change of settings
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In sequence mode it is possible to upload prefabricated parameter sets into the camera in order to work with them as quickly as possible. This is only possible when these records are known in advance –as in any typical automation process. However, there are also many applications in which the camera settings have to be adapted to situations intuitively – and from image to image!
For this kind of application, AVT has added the “quick format change modes” to Pike, in which the new values, which have already been transferred to the camera, can always be activated for the next image.
Since Pike can easily be updated via a FireWire interface, the firmware can also be transferred to cameras already installed in image processing systems.
Please contact our AVT Support Team to receive the new PIKE firmware.