Fields of Application
Smart cameras can in general be used for the same kind of applications where more complex vision systems are used, and can additionally be applied in some applications where volume, pricing or reliability constraints forbid use of bulkier devices and PC's.
Typical fields of application are:
- automated inspection for quality assurance (detection of defects, flaws, missing parts...)
- non contact measurements.
- part sorting and identification.
- code reading and verification (barcode, Data Matrix, alphanumeric etc.)
- web inspection (inspection of continuously flowing materials such as coils, tubes, wires, extruded plastic) for defect detection and dimensional gauging.
- detection of position and rotation of parts for robot guidance and automated picking
- unattended surveillance (detection of intruders, fire or smoke detection)
- biometric recognition and access control (face, fingerprint, iris recognition)
- visual sensor networks
- robot guidance
- nearly any machine vision application
Developers can purchase smart cameras and develop their own programs for special, custom made applications, or they can purchase ready made application software from the camera manufacturer or from third party sources. Custom programs can be developed by programming in various languages (typically C or C++) or by using more intuitive, albeit somewhat less flexible, development tools where existing functionalities (often called tool or blocks) can be connected in a list (a sequence or a bidimensional flowchart) that describes the desired flow of operations without any need to write program code. The main advantage of the visual approach Vs. programming is in a much shorter and somewhat easier development process, available also to non-programmers. Other development tools are available with relatively few but comparatively high level functionalities, which can be configured and deployed with very limited effort.
Smart cameras running software tailored for a single specific application are often called "vision sensors."
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