eNEWSLETTER SIGNUP
Sign up for our free
Industry eNewsletters
Q+A CENTER
Latest question:
How do you think the new GigE standards will influence the machine vision industry?
Respond or ask your question now!
Industry News
Most Read
Most E-mailed
E-mail Article
Print Article
Point Grey Research Announces 1.3 and 5 MP Additions to the Flea2 Family of IEEE 1394b Digital Cameras
The Flea2 line now offers a total of 12 different monochrome and color models that are designed to address a wide variety of industrial imaging and machine vision applications, such as 2D and 3D metrology, electronics and semiconductor inspection, medical visualization, packaging verification, and object recognition. The new models are based on the high sensitivity 1.3 MP Sony® ICX445 and the new 5 MP Sony ICX655, and offer a number of new features, including opto-isolated general purpose I/O (GPIO), an on-camera frame buffer for image storage and retransmission, flash memory for non-volatile data storage, and a new high-speed FPGA for improved performance.
"These new models cover much of the machine vision spectrum," says Vladimir Tucakov, Director of Sales and Marketing at Point Grey Research. "At one end we have the 1.3 MP Flea2, which uses an exceptionally sensitive Sony EXview HAD CCD™ to generate high quality monochrome or raw Bayer color images at 30 FPS. It targets applications that have typically used VGA and XGA cameras, which are used extensively in the machine vision industry due to their low cost, high frame rates, and smaller size. It is priced the same as the current 0.8 MP Flea2 and can run at the same 30 FPS frame rate. Also, because it's a 1/3" CCD, users can increase the number of available pixels without changing optics."
"The new 5 MP Flea2, on the other hand, offers an unbeatable combination of physical size and sensor resolution," adds Tucakov. "It uses the ICX655, the single tap version of the ICX625 dual tap CCD that is used on the Grasshopper, and runs at 7.5 FPS. It is an excellent solution for users who need very small size, a lower price point, and opto-isolated GPIO, while the Grasshopper is best-suited for those users who need higher 15 FPS frame rate and dual 1394b ports for daisy chaining."
Each model in the Flea2 family is housed in an ultra-compact 29 x 29 x 30 mm metal case with C-mount lens holder, IEEE 1394b connector with screw locks, and 8-pin GPIO connector. Key features of the Flea2 include a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter for data precision, memory channels for defining custom power-up settings, gamma and programmable lookup table, and on-camera color processing. Other standard features include multiple trigger and strobe modes, regions of interest and pixel binning, and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip that controls all camera functionality, including gain, exposure, sharpness, saturation, and more. The FPGA can be updated with new functionality in the field.
Like all Point Grey cameras, the Flea2 complies with the IIDC v1.31 specification, which allows it to be used with many third-party software packages, such as those from Cognex®, Matrox®, MVTec™, and National Instruments®. Also included with every camera is the FlyCapture® Software Development Kit (SDK), a full software package that provides a common interface to control all Point Grey digital imaging products. The SDK is compatible with both FireWire and USB 2.0 cameras using the same API, and includes support for ActiveX, TWAIN and DirectShow. It also includes the FirePRO™ low-level 1394b interface driver, which enables users to grab images at full 800Mb/s transfer rates.
