Questions & Answers

Is it possible to inspect multiple components that are located at different positions on a product, without installing multiple cameras?

The Issue

A major pharmaceutical firm recently posed this question to Optel Vision. They were looking to install a vision inspection system for the inspection and verification of multiple components on a medical device. To further complicate the situation, the components on the device varied considerably and required different forms of lighting to accurately inspect them. Multiple camera installations seemed the only solution. However, due to considerable spatial constraints on the packaging line, multiple camera installations were simply not feasible.

The Solution

Optel Vision’s recently released V2 Vision Inspection Software and electronic platform provided the flexibility essential for solving such a difficult vision inspection challenge. Our R&D department decided that one camera was going to have to carry out the inspection and analysis of more than one component, while providing the different types of lighting. What the Optel Vision R&D team did was to decouple, or in everyday terms, to separate the camera so that it would provide both back and front lighting at the same time. This allowed for the inspection of all of the product components all at once. Furthermore, all inspection images and data were easily accessible and visible on one easy-to-use touch screen interface, all at the same time.

Interface Showing Four Different Inspections On One Product

What is really unique about this system is that from an operators standpoint, he or she sees what appears to be two cameras; however, from the system’s perspective, it only recognizes one camera.

How is this possible?

The overall V2 platform brings with it many added features and benefits, one of which is an alternating component frame grabber abstraction. This feature allows for the existence of multiple logical cameras within one single physical camera.

How significant is this?

A logical camera is essentially a separate view from the same camera. An analogy can be drawn between a physical and logical camera setup and a house; the house being the physical camera and the logical cameras being the windows of the house. Basically, the main view is through the front door of the house (ie., main view of the camera), and the windows (ie., logical cameras) represent additional view points. In the end, more viewing points at different positions allow for viewing of additional information located in different areas.

What else did decoupling of the camera achieve?

The decoupling of the camera reduced the overall cost of the system since the company did not have to purchase additional cameras to carry out component inspections. Therefore, they obtained a cost-effective inspection solution that met their specific needs.