What are the characteristics of smart cameras?

A smart camera is also called an embedded machine vision system or vision sensor. It is not a simple camera, but a highly integrated micro machine vision system that is capable of the same detection tasks as a PC-type vision system. It integrates image collection, processing and communication functions, and can directly output image processing results, thereby providing a multi-functional, modular, high-reliability, easy-to-implement machine vision solution. At the same time, due to the application of DSP, FPGA, CPLD and large-capacity storage technology, its level of intelligence continues to increase, and it can meet the application needs of a variety of machine vision.

Smart cameras are easy to learn, use, maintain, and install, and can build a reliable and effective machine vision system in a short period of time. Its technical advantages are mainly reflected in:

(1) The smart camera has a compact structure and small size, is easy to install on production lines and various equipment, and is easy to load, unload, and move;

(2) Smart cameras achieve a high degree of integration of image acquisition units, image processing units, image processing software, and network communication devices. Through reliability design, higher efficiency and stability can be achieved;

(3) Since smart cameras have solidified mature machine vision algorithms, users can realize presence/absence judgment, surface/defect inspection, dimensional measurement, OCR/OCV, barcode reading and other functions without programming, thus greatly improving Improve the development speed of application systems.

Smart cameras generally consist of image acquisition units, image processing units, image processing software, network communication devices, etc. The functions of each part are as follows:

(1) Image acquisition unit - In smart cameras, the image acquisition unit is equivalent to a CCD/CMOS camera and image acquisition card in the ordinary sense. It converts optical images into analog/digital images and outputs them to the image processing unit.

(2) Image processing unit - The image processing unit is similar to an image acquisition/processing card. It can store the image data of the image acquisition unit in real time and perform image processing with the support of image processing software.

(3) Image processing software - Image processing software mainly completes image processing functions with the support of the hardware environment of the image processing unit. Such as geometric edge extraction, Blob, grayscale histogram, OCV/OVR, simple positioning and search, etc. In smart cameras, the above algorithms are packaged into fixed modules that users can apply directly without programming.

(4) Network communication device - an important part of the smart camera of the network communication device, which mainly completes the communication tasks of control information and image data. Smart cameras generally have built-in Ethernet communication devices and support a variety of standard network and bus protocols, allowing multiple smart cameras to form a larger machine vision system.