Thursday, January 14, 2010

Machine vision standards development

If you read my post, “Line scan on steroids“ about the new Dalsa line scan camera, you’ll also have registered my concern over the development of yet another camera communication standard, HSLink.

According to this article in Vision Systems Design, it seems HSLink is not the only contender. Apparently Adimec have their own ideas about how to boost speeds, (CoaXPress,) while hovering in the background is USB 3.0. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m very reluctant to invest my dollars in a technology that lacks industry acceptance, so I for one will be sitting on the sidelines until the future of camera interfaces gets straightened out.

Who remembers the VHS versus Betamax battle from thirty years ago?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll repeat my point: if you have high bandwidth camera and customers with money for it, which interface you would use right now? Or if you're integrator and you need high bandwidth camera for customer, what you would say to your customer? "Dalsa has right product, but I don't want to use it because it's unique, please take your money elsewhere"?

Somebody has to be first to take the technology to new level.

B Grey said...

What would I say to the customer?

I'd point out the risks and returns of using what seems to be a proprietory interface. For example, what happens five years down the road when a camera needs to be replaced?

I've been in exactly this position: some years ago our friends in Natick made their own cameras with their own interface. Later they stopped doing this and I now need to replace the cameras. Now I'm forced to redevelop the system using a standard interface - in this case Firewire.

Using a non-standard interface locks the buyer in to a single source. That's a decision that should be made with eyes wide open.