Press Release

17.10.03Go Digital! It´s never been so easy to get into it.

Allied Vision Technologies presents the new Firewire camera series MARLIN.

Originally designed for multimedia purposes such as video editing and processing, the IEEE1394 standard has now earned a rightful place in industrial image processing. Measured against the rapid deployment of digital technology in other fields, it admittedly has taken a long time for the vision technology market to embrace this technology. Whether it´s music or still cameras: the share of digital products is already far beyond 50%, whereas the share in the machine vision market is still below 20%.

The reason for this is simple. Only now has a new generation of products emerged on the market which more and more users of digital technology are switching to. The price difference between digital and analog cameras is becoming smaller and the advantages of a much higher bandwidth and resolution in digital solutions are becoming more obvious. With the increased competitive requirements in mind – buzz words: zero defect production and guarantee requirements – the decision benefits the technical superiority of digital image inspection relatively fast.

Image Quality Benefits:
The obvious difference in image quality is the result of the digital camera´s more exact transmission of the image rate. Additionally, longer cables no longer result in loss of quality.

Bandwidth Benefits:
A high rate of data transfer at a current rate of 400 Mbit/s enables the speed of examinations to increase in leaps and bounds – a strong benefit when it comes to increasingly fast production and examination processes. Further development in digital transfer technology promises high bandwidths ranging from 200 Mbit/s up to several Gbit/s.

Plug and Play Benefits:
IEEE1394 lets a single 6-pole cable integrate several cameras in complex applications – without any configuration or compatability issues. The camera with an IEEE1394 interface is an integral part of a PC – rendering a frame grabber superflous.

Camera Pre-Processing Benefits:
The video images immediately become available in the entire application through a simple connection to an IEEE1394 interface. Many useful parametes can be set from the start in digital cameras with built-in SmartFeatures – such as the DOLPHIN of MARLIN of AVT for example.

Complex Multi-Camera Inspection Control Benefits:
The digital IEEE1394 port also allows for the controlled connection of several cameras for the creation of multiple images fo one and the same scene.

PC Software Benefits:
IEEE1394 cameras need a stable software foundation for intensive solutions. The FirePackage OHCI solution developed by Allied Vision Technologies offers much useful help in this regard.

Conclusion:
In most cases the latest generation of 1394 cameras are comparable in all aspects of size, price and resolution today. However, the main benefits do lie in the money-saving areas such as Plug and Play, speed and image preprocessing within the camera.

MARLIN Highlights

· FireWire IEEE1394
· Highly sensitive sensors
· Different resolutions (656x494;780x582; 1032x778; 1280x1024; 1392x1040)
· Square pixel
· Progressive Scan
· True Partial Scan
· High framerates
(10 fps, 20fps,25fps, 53 fps, 74 fps)
· Manual Gain, manual Shutter
· 10 Bit A/D converter / 8 Bit output
· Smart Features (Realtime Shading Correction, Programmable Lookup Table, Realtime Color Conversion, Onboard frame memory, Delayed Image Transfer and more)