Point Grey Research, a provider of advanced imaging products, has added USB 2.0 cameras to its existing line of FireWire digital imaging products.
Point Grey will introduce a number of USB 2.0 digital cameras. Products include the Chameleon, which uses a high sensitivity 1.3 Megapixel Sony EXview HAD CCD for exceptional image quality, and a USB 2.0 version of the Firefly MV. The cameras are designed to address new opportunities in the machine vision and computer vision industries, including applications in object and gesture tracking, test and measurement, life sciences, augmented reality, and robot guidance.
The vast majority of laptop, desktop, and embedded systems provide hi-speed USB ports, which maximises system compatibility and minimises the need for add-in PCI or PCI Express interface cards. Easy access to high quality, low cost components like cables and hubs also allow end users to lower the overall cost of their systems.
Like Point Grey's other FireWire imaging products, the new USB 2.0 cameras use a single cable for power and data transfer, implement a general purpose I/O (GPIO) connector for external trigger and strobe, and use a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip to control all camera functionality, including exposure, resolution and frame rate, pixel binning, user memory channels, and more. The FPGA can also be updated with additional functionality in the field.
