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| One for all |
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Many automation processes would be impossible without machine vision systems. Almost every machine has built-in cameras. They are needed, for example, to precisely position tools or grippers or to check the visual quality of components. As every application area places different requirements on a camera, one model will hardly be sufficient to cover the entire spectrum. Machine manufacturers and system integrators therefore often face a significant amount of engineering effort if the software needs to be adapted or reprogrammed every time a camera model is changed. That is why IDS, the German machine vision specialist, provides a “one size fits all” camera software for its complete range of cameras, whether they are USB or GigE based. So, whatever the model or interface – integrating, exchanging or upgrading the cameras saves precious time, money and nerves. |
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| It's All a Matter of Position |
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Using light as a tool? This idea would have been hard to imagine only 20 years ago. Laser technology today continually opens up new application areas as it increases the efficiency, flexibility and environmental compatibility of many production processes. An example is the permanent, non-contact marking of components. Lasertechnologie Winter GmbH, the oldest laser technology company in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, develops and produces machinery for laser-assisted precision processing and metrology. An important application area for their products is the laser engraving and ablation of automotive components. To ensure the perfectly accurate positioning of the markings, Lasertechnologie Winter has developed a special software that leverages the advantages of the uEye USB cameras from IDS in combination with elements from the HALCON image processing library. |
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| Tracking down the Perpetrator |
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There is no perfect crime, as every criminal leaves traces at the crime scene. These can be not only fingerprints, microparticles or DNA material, but also shoe prints. Particularly the latter are very difficult to avoid, e.g. for burglars. Therefore they often play an important part in solving property offenses, providing not only the key to difficult cases, but also substantive evidence. To ensure a successful and efficient search for clues, the crime scene incvestigators use state-of-the-art computer technology: Images of shoe tread and outsole prints are collected in a central database, where they can be immediately queried and matched to crime scene prints. The procedure of entering all the tread patterns(prints as well as reference samples) in the system is crucial in this connection. Image acquisition and processing must be very precise, fast and efficient. For this purpose the LKA Baden-Württemberg, which is the State Criminal Police Office in the German State of Baden-Württemberg, uses the high-resolution cameras of the uEye® series from IDS. |
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| A Keen Eye for the Game |
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World Champion at last — at least in robot soccer! At the RoboCup 2007 held in Atlanta/USA from July 1 to 8, the NimbRo team of the University of Freiburg, Germany, won the soccer competitions in both the TeenSize and KidSize classes of the Humanoid League, taking two championship titles home to Germany. Featuring artificial eyes from the uEye® camera series from IDS, powerful machine vision laid the foundations for this success. |
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| Co-Pilots on Board |
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In 2006 more than 5,000 people in Germany were killed in traffic accidents. The major accident causes were unsafe lane changing, lane departure and following too closely. In view of these statistics the automotive industry is pushing to develop intelligent driver assistance systems, such as brake assist, distance control and lane keeping systems. These solutions are designed to assist the driver and improve road safety. With its CANape measurement, calibration and diagnostic tool, Vector Informatik supports the development of these systems and, based on a USB camera from IDS, offers a solution for verifying object detection algorithms. |
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| Cable testing |
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Product quality and its quick and cost-effective
control is today more important than ever in
order to survive in the global competition. This
applies especially to the automotive industry,
whose solutions have everyday life while faced
with an intense pressure of competition.
Manufacturing defects not only cause high
warranty and good-will repair costs, but
eventually also affect the manufacturer's image.
It is therefore essential to reliably detect
defects already during production. Modern
image processing systems in combination with
powerful cameras allow efficient inspection and
testing. A specialist in quality assurance systems for the automotive industry, Otte Elektronik GmbH relies on high-resolution cameras with USB interface. |
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| What to give for a gift? |
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Birthdays, wedding anniversaries, Christmas—the search for the perfect gift can cause many a sleepless night. Vitro Laser GmbH has a special tip: A detailed, life-like portrait engraved inside a solid glass cube. No gift could be more personal! Images taken from portraits or other objects are digitized by a 3D scanner in a matter of seconds. They are then engraved into the glass in just a few minutes by using precision laser technology. The pin-sharp images required for digitizing are supplied by high-resolution cameras from IDS. |
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| Here’s looking at you, Kid! |
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“Here's looking at you, kid” – who wouldn't remember the famous scene featuring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the legendary film Casablanca. But nobody looks as deeply into eyes as an optometrist or ophthalmologist. This “penetrating” glance is possible with a slit lamp. The instrument allows a highly precise examination of the human eye. To document this examination and increase the possibility of detecting changes, Tomey GmbH has integrated a compact high-resolution color camera with USB connection from IDS. |
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| Tackling Back Pain |
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Every second person over 30 years of age in Germany has back problems. Back pain has become so widespread that it is meanwhile the most common cause of inability to work and early retirement. And the patients are younger and younger: Children are diagnosed with postural deformity, tilted pelvis, scoliosis or kyphosis already at preschool age. This calls for urgent action. To help physicians find the exact cause of the pain and prescribe effective therapies, Diers International GmbH has specialized in the development of new examination methods: The three- or four-dimensional measurement of the spine with “Formetric.” This method takes a stereographic image of the back with a high-resolution USB camera from IDS. |
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| Eyes@Work |
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Robots provide indispensable and tireless help in many areas today: From medical technology and industrial production to military operations, they perform highly precise, monotonous or dangerous tasks. To do difficult work, robot systems not only need flexible grippers and tools, however. They also need abilities similar to those of the human eye or brain. This is because modern robots have to recognize, distinguish and track objects, and derive the appropriate decisions from the data they gather. In the Eyes@Work robot vision system from AES motomation, an ultra compact, high-resolution USB camera from IDS acts as a high-tech eye and supplies the required image information to a powerful software. |
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| Excelent precision before printing |
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“In the beginning was the word”—but there is quite a long way to go from the word to the finished newspaper. After text processing, type matter and artwork, the exact positioning of the printing plate in the printing press is another essential step on this way. This process requires highest precision to ensure that the ink is accurately transferred to the paper. The printing plates are prepared for positioning by so-called register punches and bending machines. The worldwide largest supplier of this type of machinery, NELA Brüder Neumeister GmbH in Lahr, Germany, in future will employ state-of the-art industrial image processing technology with USB 2.0 cameras to process the printing plates economically and fully automatically in accordance with highest quality standards. |
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| A Brilliant Solution |
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Industrial image processing systems have become indispensable in many areas of modern quality assurance. Whether in end-of-line inspection or robot control, machine vision today ensures fast, reliable and objective quality control as well as in-process defect detection. With brilliant high-gloss surfaces, however, automated image processing has so far come up against its limits: Where standard test methods using direct light or transmitted light fail, it is up to the human eye to identify inclusions or deviations in color or texture. The VisionFlex image processing system uses a new process which now allows inspecting the quality of high-gloss and reflective surfaces with modern machine vision components. A high-resolution industrial camera with USB2.0 interface plays an important part in this context. |
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| Affordable custom shoes instead of blister plasters |
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Approximately 150 different steps are required to craft a custom made shoe. A separate last must be formed for each shoe, for which the shoemaker takes measurements in 35 places. This elaborate procedure can now be handled by a foot scanner that not only speeds up the manufacturing process, but also makes it less expensive. |
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| What's Cooking - Interactive Inspiration for 'Chefs de la cuisine' |
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Do you still go to the supermarket yourself? Or does your refrigerator automatically order the groceries that are running out, via the Internet and all by itself? Does your bathroom mirror know the stock market quotes and is your percolator switched on by mobile phone as if by ghost hand? The visions that researchers are embracing for the fully automated home of the future actually run somewhere along these lines. Much planning, research and testing is already being dedicated to the envisaged conveniences—attending even to the tiresome issue of “what am I going to cook today.” The proactive kitchen table, the “Recipe Table,” once and for all solves the problem that invariably crops up each and every day. To accomplish this feat, it uses the possibilities of modern industrial image processing and the ultra-compact design of a USB 2.0 camera. |
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