Test & Measurement
Optomotive cameras offer very high frame rate and synchronization features which makes them very well suited for test and measurement applications.
Did you know that…… a small FPGA-based camera can autonomously run a 3D laser scanner?
Precision is everything in 3D scanning applications, where an acquired model is used for measurements. Laser triangulation is one of the best methods, since it offers high precision at large measurement range. For laser triangulation of a camera, a laser line projector and a device for scanning over the measured object are needed. In order to have high precision of the measured data, scanning needs to be synchronised to image acquisition. That is true for linear movement, and for rotation as well. When it comes to synchronisation, FPGAs are a perfect fit.
But that is not all! At the same time, FPGAs can be used also for other purposes, and not just for image processing itself. There can be an integrated image synchronous stepper motor controller, FPGAs can also simultaneously read an encoder, control power of laser projector and, of course, also process the image.
In this way, an FPGA-based camera in a 3D laser scanner does most of the job, as it sends already processed profiles to the host computer. One day, the host computer will essentially be just a display for viewing the results. And this day is not as far as one might think!
