Cognex camera

Cognex is the world’s leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 2 million image-based products, representing over $7 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company’s founding in 1981. Headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, USA, Cognex has offices and distributors located throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.

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The In-Sight D900 is ideal for automating complex inspection applications across a range of industries including automotive, consumer electronics, consumer products, packaging, food and beverage, medical devices, and logistics.

Not to complicate further but given same fixed Focal Length; a larger sensor size will widen the AOV and smaller sensor size the more narrow.  This creates a challenge to match say a DSLR focal length look with a corresponding AOV in a miniature or smaller camera sensor.  For instance, a 35mm lens on a DSLR camera is a relatively wide AOV perspective, however on a 1/3” or 1/2” sensor it is more of a telephoto or narrow AOV perspective.

CognexDeep Learning

Industry: Automotive and Consumer Goods/Appliances Automotive , Consumer Goods/Appliances , Food & Beverage , Medical Devices , and Packaging

Field-of-View (FOV) and Angle-of-View (AOV) vary slightly because FOV considers entire field including Depth-of-Field (DOF) or minimum distance from camera lens in-focus to farthest distance in-focus where nearer or farther are out-of-focus.  AOV is an angle from glass extending outward as an angle in degrees (ie. 85°, 100°) essentially different angles from glass to infinity extending outward.

Cognex cameraprogramming

Then it’s as easy as matching that Focal Length (mm) to an appropriate lens model as a Fixed Prime lens or Varifocal lens that falls within the range. For example, a 2.8~12mm will cover the 3.6mm requirement with lots of flexibility to adjust.

NATICK, Mass. – Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX), the leader in industrial machine vision, introduces the In-Sight® D900 embedded vision system. A first-of-its-kind solution, the In-Sight D900 features Cognex’s ViDiTM deep learning software inside an In-Sight industrial-grade smart camera. The self-contained system is designed to solve a broad range of complex in-line inspection applications including optical character recognition (OCR), assembly verification, and defect detection.

In generally terms; Focal Length (mm) describes distance between rear lens elements and sensor in digital cameras. Depending on size of sensor a given Focal Length (mm) lens will capture a specific angle-of-view (AOV) in degrees. The higher the numerical Focal Length in mm the longer or more-narrow the shot becomes, these longer focal length lenses are considered telephoto, given same sensor size. Likewise, the lower the Focal Length in mm, same sensor size, the wider the shot becomes capturing a wider AOV perspective of the scene.

CognexInsightcamera

Combining the self-learning ability of a human inspector with the robustness and consistency of a vision system, the In-Sight D900 expands the limits of what can be inspected in factory automation. The system, which can be setup using a small number of image samples, leverages Cognex’s familiar and easy-to-use spreadsheet platform and does not require a PC or deep learning expertise to deploy.

Cognex cameraprice

Choosing the right lens can seem complicated when designing for a desired camera position, shot, or perspective. Zoom cameras take out some of the guesswork, however even these cameras have a minimum and a maximum focal range. Then add in differences between parfocal and varifocal zoom lenses, further complicates the mission and might not be relevant to project scope.

“Sophisticated manufacturers are increasingly turning to deep learning vision to solve inspections that are too complicated, time-consuming, or costly to program using human or rule-based machine vision,” said Joerg Kuechen, Senior Vice President of Vision Products at Cognex. “By embedding our ViDi deep learning software in In-Sight, customers can solve even the most complex visual inspections quickly, easily, and more cost-effectively.”

Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets a range of products that incorporate sophisticated machine vision technology that gives them the ability to “see.” Cognex products include barcode readers, machine vision sensors, and machine vision systems that are used in factories, warehouses, and distribution centers around the world to guide, gauge, inspect, identify, and assure the quality of items during the manufacturing and distribution process. Cognex is the world’s leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 1 million vision-based products, representing over $4 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company’s founding in 1981. Headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, USA, Cognex has regional offices and distributors located throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Fixed Prime vs Varifocal lenses offer different perspectives even if the Focal Length in the Varifocal (variable focal length) lens is set to match the Fixed Focal Length Prime lens. When a Varifocal lens is used, different settings within the variable focal range effect Depth-of-Field (DOF). Fixed Prime lenses will hold everything within the FOV in focus or might be stated as “near contact to infinity in focus”.

To be able to choose the right Focal Length lens for a specific camera model with corresponding sensor size two measurements will need to be taken; distance to target scene (or shot) and width of scene (or shot) to be captured by camera at that distance. Then plugging these data points into a FOV calculator or app will provide a Focal Length on given sensor size. For instance, a 1/3” camera sensor at a 10 foot distance needing to capture a 15’ horizontal shot (16:9 HD ratio) would require a 3.6mm focal length (image from pCAM Pro app from iPhone shown here).

About Cognex Corporation Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures and markets a wide range of image-based products, all of which are artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that give them the human-like ability to make decisions on what they see. Cognex products include machine vision systems, deep learning vision software, machine vision sensors and barcode readers that are used in factories and distribution centers around the world, where they eliminate production and shipping errors.