The use of machine vision in industrial automation applications continues to increase as companies look for gains in productivity, efficiency and safety. Market forecasters estimate that the total market for machine vision will reach more than $18 billion by 2025, up from about $10 billion today. 

Frame grabbers are essential components in machine vision systems that provide ultra high-speed, high-data image capture from one camera or multiple cameras simultaneously. 

Teledyne DALSA announced its Xtium™2-CXP series of high-performance frame grabbers. The new series transfers image data to the host memory at maximum acquisition rates with zero CPU utilization, allowing host applications to operate at maximum efficiency.

Understandably, designers of high-throughput, multi-camera machine vision systems have grown dissatisfied with those aging standards and have found a new champion, CoaXPress (CXP), a high-speed, point-to-point, serial communications interface that runs data over off-the-shelf 75Ω coaxial cables.

Two interfaces—GigE and USB—have been dominating the machine vision industry for the last five years. One supports long cable lengths and easy integration of multiple cameras, while the other offers higher bandwidth and true plug-and-play convenience. 

The company celebrated its 20th anniversary last year.

The introduction of the PC and the increasing functionality of integrated circuits created a new market for PC-based single-board computers, frame grabbers, I/O peripherals, graphics, and communications boards—the building blocks of today’s embedded electronics and machine vision systems. 

Do you need to build a system with an imaging component and are you wondering about the simplicity and functionality of CoaXPress? Perfect, because that is the topic of this article.

Since its early days, machine vision has been primarily used to check the liquid level in a bottle, or verify if a packaging label is applied correctly.

The smallest Camera Link frame grabber just got easier to use in an embedded system. Using a half size PCIe mini slot, the PIXCI® EB1miniH is ideal for mounting in an embedded computer chassis.