More on next-gen smart cameras

A flyer from Vision Components popped up in my in-box the other day to tell me about their 5Mp smart camera, the snappily-named, VC4012nano. This little baby, no bigger than a deck of cards, is available for the princely sum of $999 (€699) which in terms of pixels per dollar, makes it an absolute winner.

Vision Components have long been at the leading edge when it comes to smart cameras, but I’ve always had a problem with their preference for using processors from Texas Instruments. I’m no embedded systems IT geek, but as I understand these things it’s hard if not impossible to get regular Wintel packages to run on such hardware. This means that unless you’re willing to climb the learning curve associated with VC’s own software, they’re not a practical option for the machine vision end user.

However, German compatriot Eye Vision Technology, have taken the VC4012nano into their fold and equipped it with their EyeSpector software. In this more user-friendly guise it sells for &1,500 as the EyeSpector 800.

I’ve not been “hands-on” with EyeSpector, so if any of you readers out there would like to share your experience, please use the Comment function to tell us what you think.