Article Abstracts | October 2006
The complete article appears in the October 2006 issue of Photonics Spectra. If you do not have a copy of this issue,
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Smart Cameras Are Earning a Niche in Machine Vision
Defining ‘smart’ is not as important as developing cameras that perform their tasks optimally.
by Hank Hogan, Contributing Editor
With apologies to Forrest Gump: Smart is as smart does. As the cost of memory and processor chips has dropped, camera vendors have crammed more and more intelligence into their devices. Consequently, current instruments can run the latest operating systems and software, enabling users to shift from desktop use directly to smart-camera operation without suffering any loss of performance.
A sample of the new breed of instruments is the XCI-SX1 Smart Camera from Sony Electronics Inc. of Park Ridge, N.J., which fits in the palm of one’s hand yet contains a complete vision system: sensor, processor and interface. The device has 256 MB of fast memory, 1 GB of flash memory (which acts similarly to a PC hard drive) and XPe, an embedded version of Microsoft’s XP operating system...
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