Like the fighter pilots in the classic movie “Top Gun,” machine vision applications have always had a “need for speed.” This is understandable as faster moving conveyor belts and motion control systems mean more items per hour that can be inspected, measured, aligned, packed or otherwise processed down the line. The result is higher productivity, and that is the name of the game.
In the early days, vision systems based on analog video standards were limited to 25-30 triggers per second—the maximum frame rate of these cameras. Fast shutters (short exposure times) could be used to reduce motion blur, but the fundamental speed of operation could not exceed the 30 fps frame rate.