Vision Research introduced another new camera system in its line of high-bandwidth imaging devices designed for machine vision applications.
The new Phantom S640 uses the same CMOS sensor as the company’s VEO640, but can deliver data and imagery at up to 75 Gbps, or 6 gigapixels/second. That corresponds to 1,480fps image capture at 2560 x 1600 resolution, scaling all the way up to 200,715fps at much lower resolutions. Vision Research said the camera’s sensor has unusually large 10 micron pixel sites for a machine-vision camera, which suggests higher light sensitivity. It’s rated at ISO 6500 for monochrome and ISO 1250 for color.
Vision Research Phantom S640 machine-vision camera
The S640’s design is similar to that of the VEO640. It employs four banks of four CXP-6 CoaXPress connections, each bank connecting to a four-port frame grabber. Once the frame grabbers have received data, images can be stitched together and processed using algorithms appropriate for the application. Stitching is integrated into the software of the Octo CXP6 frame-grabbing hardware made by Euresys.
Data transfer can be reduced by using only one or two banks of ports, resulting in data throughput of 2 and 4 gigapixels/second, respectively. Data transfer rates are also reduced if the camera is operated in 8-bit capture mode rather than 12-bit.
The S990 machine-vision camera, which uses the same CMOS sensor as the Phantom Flex 4K, can shoot at a raster of 4096 x 2304, but tops out at 938fps unless shooting at sub-HD resolution.
