Industrial Camera Electric Zoom Optical System Digital Downscaling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing industrial camera systems face challenges in adjusting the field of view range while maintaining image inspection accuracy, as they require manual adjustments and often rely on optical zooming, which can shift the inspection object and increase costs due to the need for large, expensive lenses.
Innovation Solution
An industrial camera with an electrically controlled zoom optical system that performs optical zooming and downscaling, allowing for flexible field of view adjustment through user-designated zoom magnification, where downscaling is prioritized over optical zooming to maintain accuracy and reduce the need for extensive lens adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If optical zooming is used to enlarge the field of view range, then the field of view can be adjusted, but the inspection object may shift from the field of view and manual adjustment of installation position and orientation is required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical optical zooming with digital downscaling. Instead of moving lens groups to change magnification, the system captures images at maximum field of view and applies digital downscaling processing to achieve the desired magnification effect, thereby eliminating the need for mechanical adjustment and preventing object shift.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from optical dimension (physical lens movement) to digital dimension (image processing). By performing downscaling in the digital domain after capture, the system achieves zoom functionality without mechanical movement, solving the object shift problem inherent in optical zooming.
2Adaptability or versatility
If optical zooming is used to achieve wide field of view fluctuation range, then field of view can be adjusted, but lens size increases and cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical optical zoom system with a digital downscaling system. Instead of requiring large, complex lens groups to achieve wide field of view fluctuation, the system uses a fixed lens at maximum field of view combined with digital processing, significantly reducing lens size and manufacturing cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a digital copy of the captured image and applies downscaling to this copy. This allows the system to achieve multiple field of view magnifications from a single captured image, eliminating the need for multiple physical lenses or large zoom ranges.
3Measurement precision
If downscaling is used instead of optical zooming, then object shift is minimized and accuracy is improved, but the field of view fluctuation range must be achieved through processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces optical zooming with digital downscaling processing. The calculation unit computes the downscaling magnification based on the relationship between the output region and the entire captured image, then applies this scaling to generate the inspection target image, achieving accuracy improvement through software rather than hardware complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
An industrial camera includes an electric zoom optical system, an imaging unit generating a captured image with a number of pixels larger than a number of pixels of an inspection target image, an image generation unit executing downscaling a captured image corresponding to an output region of the imaging unit, an interface unit receiving designation of a zoom magnification, and a calculation unit calculating an optical magnification of optical zooming and a magnification of the downscaling based on the zoom magnification. When the zoom magnification is smaller than or equal to a predetermined magnification, an inspection target image is generated by downscaling a captured image at a scaling magnification calculated based on the zoom magnification. When the zoom magnification is larger than the predetermined magnification, the zoom optical system is driven at the optical magnification calculated based on the zoom magnification to generate an inspection target image.