Dalsa gets smart(er)

To me Dalsa is first and foremost a camera company. If I need a line scan camera, they are the people I turn to. But that’s understating their capabilities by a long way. They can provide software, (Sherlock, Sapera,) frame grabbers, and a line of “Vision Appliances” from a division they christened iPd.

The iPd line had me a little puzzled from the start. I admired their desire to make vision easier to use, but providing reduced functionality didn’t seem the way to do it. However, with the BOA, Dalsa seem to be taking a different approach to the smart camera business.

There’s a good write up of the BOA in the October 2009 edition of Control Engineering, (Single Point Machine Vision,) so I’ll spare you the details. The key point though is that this is an InSight Micro-sized smart camera that packs the iNspect software from the iPd line. The pricing, at $1,995 for the VGA resolution, should make the BOA worthy of consideration.

So far there are no higher resolution models, although I have to believe they’re in development. According to Control Engineering, Dalsa are also planning to put Sherlock on the BOA. Now when then happens I really will be interested!