IDS Imaging Development Systems has released a multi-camera system with eight USB 3.0 cameras. Each of the eight USB 3 uEye CP cameras, which are equipped with a highly sensitive 1.3 Megapixel e2v sensor, delivers 25fps. This results in a total data rate of 250MB, which is transferred via a single USB 3.0 cable to the host PC. Despite this enormous data rate, the CPU load is only 20 per cent.
The 29 x 29 x 29mm camera housing is not only compact, but due to its magnesium casing also very lightweight and robust. The camera also offers trigger, flash and pulse width modulation as well as two GPIOs (General Purpose I/O). The GPIOs can also be converted into a serial port (RS232), to trigger peripheral devices, for example. Thanks to the lockable micro USB 3.0 and Hirose connectors, the camera is also perfect for harsh environments. With a low power consumption of only 1 Watt, the camera is specifically suited for mobile and embedded applications.
Additionally, the USB 3.0 uEye CP boasts a range of outstanding features: a 12-bit lookup table and hardware gamma makes brightness corrections. 12-bit colour depth offers a factor of 16 increase in level of detail compared to the usual 8 bit. Hardware based data preprocessing and colour calculation saves additional PC resources.
Initially the camera family will be offered with three different CMOS sensors. These include a highly sensitive 1.3 Megapixel e2v sensor, as well as a WVGA and a high resolution 5 Megapixel sensor from Aptina. More high resolution sensors will follow in 2012.
The new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface offers a data rate of 400MB/s and hence a significant advantage compared to common interfaces. IDS’ own software package for all common operating systems supports the USB 3 uEye CP camera family. Hence, mixed operation of USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and GigE cameras is possible.
