FEATURE SENSING TECHNOLOGY A GLARING
SENSORY ISSUE Speeding development for polarised applications
In September, Sony launched the IMX250MZR sensor, which integrated polarisation functionality at the pixel level. In a unique move, Sony’s Image Sensing Solutions division has further developed both hardware and software offerings, hoping to cut development time from several months to weeks. Here, Stéphane Clauss, senior business development manager, gives Electronics a more in-depth look at the technology
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t’s been a number of years since the R&D and market development phases of Sony’s first polarised camera module - the XCG-CP510 – began work. In this time, from talking with selected key players of targeted markets, it became clear that the biggest barrier to adoption was the ability of system developers to work with the new sensor technology. As a result, Sony has developed a dedicated image processing library to speed solution development: taking it from 6-24 months to circa 6-12 weeks. This approach brings together a set of key functions - such as stress measurement or glare reduction - with highly optimised algorithms. The set of functions have been developed to run on a standard PC, with the choice of CPU/ GPU architecture, resolution and frame rate dictated by the processing functions. The SDK launch is timed to match Sony’s polarised camera going into production at the end of November.
KEY FEATURES Support functions are supplied in the SDK, which includes demosaic and raw extraction. The ‘Cosine fit’ allows the developer to define a virtual polariser angle for the whole image, and the ‘average’ function creates a non- polarised image from the raw data to export what a standard machine vision camera would see for comparison. Pre-processing functions calculate various polarisation specific information, like the ‘degree of polarisation’, ‘Stokkes’ vector’ and the ‘surface normal vector’. At the higher-end level, applications-oriented functions have been implemented to manage reflections, and measure stress. These functions’ algorithms have been optimised for
18 SEPTEMBER 2019 | ELECTRONICS
accuracy and high computing to enable its use in real-time inspection. The use of polarised camera modules will prove vital in a wide range of applications. The SDK has developed models for the major subset of these, with key ones listed below.
WEAKNESS DETECTION
In stress monitoring, one can measure where stresses are occurring, by how the light bends to highlight potential weaknesses, vital in industries such as glass, PET and phone displays.
INSPECTION - FOR MANUFACTURING AND ITS Similarly, Sony has developed models to extract reflections on an object under inspection, caused by unmanaged lighting. This reflection/ glare management control will not only improve quality inspection for PCB inspection and packaging (particularly in the pharmaceutical industry), but for traffic monitoring as well, allowing you to confirm if the driver is conscious, a mobile device is in use, a passenger isn’t strapped in and more.
SCRATCH IDENTIFICATION For transparent goods inspection, the camera and SDK makes it feasible, with the reflection enhancement, to more easily undertake surface inspection and scratch detection. Sony has already developed and validated the software, to implement the applications listed above, discovering new usages every day.
The XCG-CP510 polarised camera, fitted with Sony’s IMX250MZR CMOS sensor
/ ELECTRONICS
At Vision Show, Sony showed two real-time demonstrations of the SDK in action, with glare reduction for ITS applications and stress analysis. In this application, a polarised XCG-CP510 camera was set up 50cm from a PET block that had been back lit with a monochromatic light and polariser. The camera was set to output both an averaged (non-polarised) image alongside a heat map image, with the software calculating the phase retardation, correlated to stress applied to the PET block. Above the block was a screw that users could turn to change the stress placed on the block. As per the images, in the averaged version for both no stress and under stress, it is impossible to see the effect with a normal machine vision camera. However, using the SDK’s algorithms, it is possible to detect rapid changes. By expanding its sensory offerings in this manner, Sony has another notch in its belt: polarised applications to provide inspective solutions.
Sony
www.image-sensing-solutions.eu
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