Fast image acquisition technology is useful for almost any application of industrial image processing. Especially the performance of applications like structured light projection for 3D image acquisition can be significantly improved when based on a fast imaging sensor. The number of images used to create the image stack for a structured light projection is limited and can be buffered inside the camera to be able to fully exploit the capabilities of the sensor (Burst Mode). By buffering the image data inside the camera interface does not pose a bottle neck to the speed of the image acquisition sequence.
Besides such high-speed applications there are many more applications using only parts of the sensor for their specific task. To meet such needs even the earliest CMOS image sensors featured “Regions Of Interest” (ROIs). By using ROIs the image data is reduced allowing for an even faster image acquisition. Modern sensors implement multiple ROIs (MROI) for more flexibility in using the ROIs. MROIs are most suitable to reduce the amount of data inside the camera to the absolute minimum, enabling fast streaming applications or an even faster image acquisition while buffering the images in the camera using the Burst Mode.
Another possibility to significantly reduce the amount of image data is to use Binning. Binning reduces the lateral resolution by a specific factor that is defined by the size of the kernel that is used for Binning. By reducing the lateral resolution it increases the light sensitivity by adding the intensities of all binned pixels together. This feature can be especially helpful when dealing with low-light situations while still having the need for a fast image acquisition. However, it does not increase the speed of the sensor itself but mitigates the bottleneck posed by the camera interface by reducing the amount of data per image.
These features (Burst Mode, MROI, and Binning) are implemented in Photon Focus' high-speed camera MV1-D1280-L01-1280-G2 enabling this camera to fully exploit the sensor speed. This camera is based on the fast Luxima LUX1310 which can acquire 947 FpS @ 1280x1024 pixels. Limited for streaming applications by the capacity of the camera interface, MROI and Binning enable the camera to provide a high and steady frame rate to the host with reduced lateral resolution. Using the Burst Mode, high resolution images can be acquired at full sensor speed by buffering the image sequence inside the camera.
Our new MV1-D1280-L01-1280-G2 is based on our well established MV1 platform and implements all standard features of this platform as well as Burst Mode, MROI, and Binning. The camera implements a standard GigE interface implementing the GigEVision and GeniCam standards. For the Burst Mode the camera provides an internal memory of 2 Gbit, which enables the camera to store image sequences of (e.g.) 250ms at 1024x124 pixels or 1000 ms at 512x512 pixels, varying on the size of the utilized ROI.
