Smart camera upgrades from Matrox

Say “smart camera” and most machine vision people will respond “Cognex”. My guess is that only one in fifty would go “Matrox” and that’s a pity because Matrox has a very viable smart camera product.

Going by the name of Iris, and more recently Iris GT, it’s a capable product that runs a software product they call “Design Assistant” or DA for short. Now I’ve played with DA and I found it good, but not so good that I was filled with a burning desire to use it for every application.

But I hear there’s a pretty significant upgrade coming to Iris and DA. Things like more memory in the cameras, (always a good move,) upgrading the camera OS, and a host of new and improved tools for DA. You’ll need to wait for the official announcement from Matrox to learn what these are, but it’s my understanding that a filmstrip image replay function, like that on the Cognex Checker, is on the way.

Improvements are good, even if it is a bit of a pain-in-the-ass to switch over, but I’m still not sure this will convert me to the DA cause. But maybe I should download the evaluation version and give it a go.