10 profi le
these products and build their own embedded
systems.
‘People will compete with us, but there are a
lot of engineers out there who want to protect
their own intellectual property and have their
own solution. They can take our tools and build
their own Sensors that See for their application.
The development will take a lot less time using
these tools, rather than developing everything
from scratch. There are also issues around
manufacturing – if you design something unique
you still have to get someone to manufacture
it for you. We have had companies ask us to
manufacture for them. A lot of companies like to
have their own touch on a product and don’t want
someone else to have designed it all for them. We The Maestro Developer Kit includes: P800 controller, C12 camera and light triggering module, dual-
let them do that with our FireSync products. CAT5e cable, 48 DVC power supply and cord, international power outlet converter, and user software.
‘A lot of machine vision is done with PC-
based systems, especially now that interfacing a third party that can supply something better where a lot of pieces have to work together,
the cameras has become easier, thanks to GigE. for the price. We are a metrology company; we including an encoder to interface with other
Customers used to pay $25,000 for their machine build devices that measure things and need to instruments.
vision system and then pay $25,000 to integrate remain temperature-stable over the range that Metcalfe says: ‘It makes the PC into a
it. These days people are paying $5,000 for the you fi nd in a sawmill. If you just buy a camera slave, with Maestro as the conductor. You can
machine vision system, based on a PC with a GigE you have to buy these pieces separately, and it’s confi gure it from a web browser or integrate it
camera, so they are not willing to pay $25,000 to your problem getting them to work together with your vision software. It works with lots of
and to be stable.’ cameras, including FireWire and CameraLink,
‘We started looking at a set
The FireSync platform is a development but we believe that GigE is going to be the
of hardware and software that was created to interface of the future. We are trying to simplify
of tools that would reduce
build very large systems, synchronising up to machine vision and make it as close as possible
80 cameras. Originally the technology used was to plug-and-play.’
the cost of integration’
FireWire, but LMI discovered that, with very LMI is, of course, well known in its vertical
large numbers of cameras, there were instabilities. markets and the sales channels for the Sensors
integrate it. We started looking at a set of tools Metcalfe says the engineering team liked FireWire that See product line are well established
that would reduce the cost of that integration. We because of its synchronisation, but it did not suit – this is still 90 per cent of what LMI does.
have now created a set of tools for PC applications, the large installations. The components business is, however, a new
centred on the Maestro product line, which can He says: ‘We were spending all our time venture. Metcalfe believes the Maestro product
quickly integrate cameras and PCs into a single overcoming problems with FireWire and, at line, in particular, is unlike any other type of
system – without all the complicated cabling and that time, GigE was starting to become more product on the market. It will require a different
om
worrying about synchronisation, how you drive prominent. FireSync was a software protocol channel strategy and the recruitment of many
ope.c
your lights, and so on. That means the customer layered on top of FireWire and so we layered it on distributors around the world. He is hoping
eur
can do more, get the job done faster, and reduce top of GigE and went from a daisy chain to a star that the distributors will be able to identify
.imv
the selling price.’ confi guration. Even when we went to 10GigE the new people to become integrators, because
www As well as hardware, LMI is also selling the system was really stable.’ the component approach makes it easier to
HexSight vision software package, which it The FireSync hardware is based around a integrate and grow the market along the way.
ch 2009 
licensed from the robot company Adept in August GigE switch and dual Cat5e cable, but while Metcalfe says: ‘Maestro, HexSight and
2007. Its core tool is geometric pattern matching. one pair is carrying the data, the other wires FireSync are distribution businesses. We have
To make this even easier for integrators, it has been are carrying 48V power, synchronisation and distributors in Germany, Netherlands, China
built into a hardware package that can be quickly laser safety cut out. All these things can be and Japan, but we are just starting up. We are
Flea
®
2, the smallest IEEE-1394b camera in the world
 
f
ebruary/mar
integrated with a GigE camera. distributed over 100 metres – extremely useful looking for several distributors, because we see
ope Metcalfe says the company has always been in a factory set-up. Maestro as a very general product for many
focused on what customers want, and what they Metcalfe says: ‘You get a totally programmable sectors. We are building up our distribution
are prepared to pay. LMI builds its hardware from environment scaling from one or two cameras plans at the moment, so people who are To design the ideal machine vision camera, we followed these simple rules:
the sensor up, because it knows that any camera up to 30 or 40, and you can synchronise to interested should get in touch. We think that
Make it small (29x29x30mm). Make it fast (1.3MP color images at 30FPS
bought in from another supplier will inevitably your light sources. You don’t get the noise there is nothing out there that competes at the
over FireWire). Make it versatile (12 CCD models, VGA to 5MP). And make
have features that are not needed. problems that you get with FireWire, because moment.
the other dogs howl (starting from USD $695).
Metcalfe says: ‘For the Sensors That See it is isolated.’ ‘There are a lot of small integrators out there
embedded systems, we have always built our The latest product is called Maestro, which can that make machine vision work and we want to
own hardware, because we have never found orchestrate a very large machine vision system help make their lives easier.’ Join the pack: www.ptgrey.com/smallrules
imaging and machine vision eur
IMVEfeb09 pp09-11 profile.indd 10 17/2/09 17:05:28
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