New 3D capabilities from Cognex

The boys and girls in Natick aren’t usually shy about their achievements, but this press release seems to have snuck out under the radar. A new software tool, christened “3D-Locate™” (what, no “Pat” prefix?!) provides support for 3D machine vision applications.

There are a few interesting aspects of this worth pointing out. First, the datasheet provides a good summary of the different approaches to 3D vision – stereo, single camera and so on. Second, also in the datasheet, there’s a brief discussion of the benefits of checkerboard rather than dot grid calibration. And third, a simple idea that I really like, Cognex have encoded the calibration data – grid count, pitch and size – in a datamatrix code etched onto the actual calibration grid.

This is such a simple idea – let the vision system determine the calibration input parameters rather than hardcoding them – that I wonder why MaxLevy, (makers of the best calibration targets,) haven’t already done it.

Full marks to Cognex for trying to make machine vision a little bit easier to use.