USB 3.0 offers new perspectives in machine vision

IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH presents the world’s first multi-camera system with eight USB 3.0 cameras. Each of the eight newly developed USB 3 uEye CP cameras, which are equipped with a highly sensitive 1.3 Megapixel e2v sensor, delivers 25 frames per second. This results in a total data rate of 250 MByte, which are transferred via one single USB 3.0 cable to the host PC. Despite this enormous data rate, the CPU load is a mere 20%.

Hence, it is rather easy to implement multi-camera systems with the new IDS USB 3.0 camera. The camera is not only perfect for common industrial application, but especially for multi-camera and 3D systems. These could previously only be implemented using costly and expensive solutions with either Camera Link or Firewire.

More than 9 years of experience in the development and sale of USB cameras has consistently been implemented in the new camera family. The 29 x 29 x 29 mm 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), e.g. to trigger peripheral devices. Thanks to the lockable micro USB 3.0 and Hirose connectors the camera is also perfect for rough 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: Brightness corrections are realized by a comfortable 12-bit lookup table and hardware gamma. 12-bit color depth offers a by factor 16 increased level of detail compared to the usual 8 bit. Hardware based data preprocessing and color calculation saves additional PC resources.

Initially the USB 3 uEye CP 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 400 MByte/s and hence a significant advantage compared to common interfaces. It goes without saying that IDS’ own proven software package for all common operating systems also supports the new USB 3 uEye CP camera family. Hence, mixed operation of USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and GigE cameras is a breeze. The universal availability of USB as a mainstream interface guarantees a long-term investment security.