With the continually increasing demand on framerates, bit depths, and resolution, interface standards must adapt to these changes with new ways to transfer data with increased speed and robustness. Modern interface standards such as GigE Vision and USB3 Vision support the transmission of streaming video frames while using commonly available interfaces and cables, and do not require the use of specialized equipment like frame grabbers (costly pieces of networking infrastructure that allow computers to capture frames from streaming video connections). The frame transfer protocol is built directly into the standard to minimize cost and implementation complexity.
With all of this in mind, this article explores the current state and near future of the most popular machine vision interfaces that do not need a frame grabber.