Press Release

06.11.07“Transformer” Camera: New Stingray from Allied Vision Technologies adapts to any application.

Allied Vision Technologies introduces its new Stingray family of cameras at VISION 2007. These multi-function digital cameras set a new market standard, providing superior images at an attractive price. AVT’s modular concept can adapt to meet the individual needs of any application.

In industrial image-processing, every application has its own specific requirements, but economics favor standardized solutions. Allied Vision Technologies solves this dilemma by introducing its new product, the Stingray family of cameras, at the world’s largest trade fair for industrial image-processing.

Attractive Price-Performance Ratio
The new fish in AVT’s school falls into the mid-range in terms of price, but offers a breadth of functions unrivaled in its class and an unbeatable price/performance ratio. The Stingray is equipped with a fast FireWire IEEE 1394b interface, and its two connectors allow several cameras to be linked together in a “daisy chain” network. One version also comes with a fiber-optic connection (GOF).

The new camera is loaded with typical AVT intelligent functions for image pre-processing, like lookup tables, shading correction, white balance and 2 to 8X binning for enhanced photosensitivity. The grabber functions, including an internal memory and deferred transport mode, make the Stingray ideal for multi-camera operations, while the sequence mode enables lightning-fast parameter changes. The camera’s many built-in functions reduce the load on the image-processing CPU and increase data precision and efficiency with optimized image quality.

A Stingray for Every Application: AVT’s Modular Concept
Almost every machine-vision application has its own unique requirements. The Stingray was designedto be modulare and flexibile, offering an optimal solution for each application at an attractive price/performance ratio. This way, each user can design his camera individually to meet his own needs – with a wide selection of lens-mounts, sensors, case variations (including board-level versions), interfaces and cable outputs, which can be flexibly configured using building-block principles. Special designs and custom-made products are availableon request, for applications with special requirements not included in the standard versions.

Unique Architecture Designed to Dissipate Heat from Sensors
The new Stingray delivers strikingly high image quality as a result of a comprehensive camera design, each detail of which has been optimized for image quality. For example, the position of the sensor in the overall camera architecture has been optimized to dissipate heat efficiently from the sensors in order to minimize the background noise in the image. “The main source of background noise is black noise, which is directly affected by sensor temperature,” explains Ingo Lewerendt, Product Manager of Allied Vision Technologies. “Black noise doubles with each 7ºC to 9ºC increase in temperature. Therefore, we wanted to minimize the heat from the operation of the sensor itself or the influence of nearby components.” Active cooling is impossible in such a compact camera case—so the solution optimized the heat sink by designing the sensor-mount in such a way that the heat is transferred into the metal case and radiates faster to the outside in contact with the outside air.

For applications that require active cooling of the camera, with AVT’s modular concept, a Peltier cooler can be coupled to the Stingray and actively controlled by it to regulate the camera temperature

When the Stingray is introduced to the market, it will come in six different versions, in color and monochrome. It is equipped with high-end CCD sensors with resolutions from VGA up to 2 megapixels. With its IEEE 1394b interface, the new camera provides fast data transfer rates—up to 84 fps. The Stingray will be available in Spring 2008.

Stingray Overview - preliminary data: