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Ahrensburg, January 27, 2004 – Basler Vision Components (Basler-VC) has successfully introduced a new line of area scan cameras, the A600f series. These CMOS sensor based cameras have a full frame shutter, an IEEE 1394 interface, a very small housing, and can operate at up to 100 frames per second at full 656 x 491 resolution.
Because CMOS sensors do not have the blooming or smearing seen with CCDs, A600f cameras are good candidates for outdoor applications. The new High Dynamic Range (HDR) version of the A600f is especially suited for outdoor use. The A600f-HDR grabs multiple frames with different exposure times and combines the collected gray values to create a single high dynamic range image. Using this technique, the A600f-HDR is able to simulate a range of up to 112 dB. Even with this high dynamic range, the signal-to-noise ratio for each gray value is very good compared to a purely logarithmic sensitivity curve. The camera’s frame rate depends on the required dynamic range, for example, a 53.3 fps rate can be achieved with a 48 dB range and an 8 fps rate with a 112 dB range.
The output signal can be a linear 16 bit signal (limited) or an exponential format (8 bit base, 8 bit exponent). To allow visualization of HDR images on standard 8 bit monitors, a software tool with Laplace and tonemap conversions is available.
Basler-VC designs and manufactures advanced vision components for industrial users. Products include color and monochrome line scan and area scan digital cameras for high speed and/or high-resolution applications. Product designs are driven by industry requirements offering easy interfacing, compact size, and a strong price / performance ratio.
For more information, please contact us at +49 4102 463-500, e-mail us at vc.sales.europe@baslerweb.com or visit us on the web at http://www.basler-vc.com

Ahrensburg, March 1, 2004 – The Basler A600f camera family, already a very powerful product line, is being enhanced with valuable new features. More intelligence and performance are moving from the PC into the camera. These improvements will debut in the A600f series and will be extended to Basler's other IEEE 1394 products opening many new camera applications.

The power of the electronic components used in Basler IEEE 1394 cameras now allows real-time transmission of both basic image data and additional image parameters such as the position and size of the area of interest (AOI). On-the-fly changes in AOI position can be realized for fast tracking of ob-jects. A frame counter, a precise time stamp, and a list of general parameter settings including absolute exposure time, gamma, gain, offset, and white balance values can be added to the basic image data and sent to the PC with 32 bit accuracy. Because the image content is more than 99% of the whole package, the effect on the camera's frame rate is negligible. An op-tional checksum (CRC) proves that extended data transmission via the IEEE 1394 bus is safe. The cameras also feature user configurable I/O ports (4 of each) which add flexibility in industrial applications.

“The feature-set and properties of the A600f make it an ideal candidate for nearly all digital camera applications. Once again, Basler is showing a keen sense of the requirements for machine vision,” commented Dr. Joachim Linkemann, Vision Components Product Manager. “By moving many pre-processing tasks into the camera, we have established an ideal basis for customized solutions.”

Basler-VC designs and manufactures advanced vision components for industrial users. Our products include color and monochrome line scan and area scan digital cameras for high-speed and/or high-resolution applications. Product designs are driven by industry requirements offer-ing easy interfacing, compact size, and a strong price/performance ratio.

For more information, please contact us at +49 4102 463-500, e-mail us at vc.sales.europe@baslerweb.com or visit us on the web at http://www.basler-vc.com