AREA SCAN VS LINE SCAN CAMERA

An area scan camera is typically used when the items that are being inspected, sorted, or analyzed have definite shapes or boundaries.For example, when you need to inspect individual, 3-dimensional items like fruit, boxes or printed circuit boards, an area scan camera, which uses a matrix of pixels to create a 2D image of each object, will most likely be your choice.Line scan cameras, on the other hand, capture individual lines instead, which are then compiled by the respective software to form an image.Line scan cameras are most effective when you need to inspect long, continuous items, or a variety of items that have many different lengths or sizes. When the object does not have a well-defined start, end, or even size to it, a line scan camera is most suitable for your application.

How to work Area Scan Camera as Line Scan Camera

With the IDS Software Suite you can enable a line scan mode for specific GigE and USB 3 uEye models with CMOSIS, e2v or Sony sensors. This allows you to operate the area scan camera as a line scan camera. With the “Vertical AOI merge mode” function, you also have the option to trigger not only images but also lines.For further information on setting and programming the cameras, contact us [email protected].

Activating line scan mode with AOI merge

First, open the camera as normal area scan camera in uEye Cockpit. Adjust the camera to the desired composition.

To define the ideal line position, use the horizontal line view. Open the window via “View > Line view (horizontal)” and move the line of the line view with the mouse to the desired image area. The selected row position is displayed in the menu bar of the dialog.

Also check that the camera is operated in trigger mode so that you can use image and line trigger.

Open the camera properties via “uEye > Properties” and switch to the “Vertical AOI merge mode” tab. Enable the AOI merge mode via the drop-down list. Set as line position the line that you have identified in the horizontal line view. You can see the frames per seconds of the line scan mode in the lower part of the tab.

You do further settings for trigger mode on the “Trigger” tab. Here, you can set the trigger timeout or trigger prescaler among others. Via the trigger prescaler (frequency divider) you can set that the trigger signal is divided by the set value. This is necessary when the trigger signal delivers more pulses as needed for the captures. With the set value, e.g. 40, you define that the camera captures an image only every 40th trigger signal.

When you operate the camera in line scan mode, the pixel clock is automatically set to the maximum possible value and the frame rate and exposure time to the minimum possible values.

Application areas

The line scan mode can be used almost exclusively in endless web inspection systems, for example of textiles, paper, wheel rims or even silicon wafers. It is not real-ly suitable for print inspection or surface testing.

Summary

The line scan mode is suitable for wide range of simpler applications in endless web inspection systems. Simple setup and low system costs make it an affordable alternative to the original line scan camera.

With the uEye API function “is_DeviceFeature” or the uEye .NET class “AoiMerge” you can program the line scan mode.

For further information on setting and programming the cameras,contact us [email protected]