BitFlow Frame Grabbers Enable Researchers to Leverage CoaXPress into Experimental 3D Profilometry Imaging Technique

Profilometry is an imaging technique used to extract topographical data from a surface in order to obtain surface morphology, step heights and surface roughness. Dynamic 3D surface imaging by phase-shifting fringe projection profilometry (PSFPP) has been widely implemented in diverse applications, including industrial manufacturing, archaeological inspection, entertainment, and biomedicine. PSFPP works by first projecting sets of phase-shifting sinusoidal fringe patterns onto 3D objects and then analyzing deformed structure images reflected from the objects to retrieve 3D surface information.

Existing PSFPP techniques have fallen short in simultaneously providing the robustness in solving spatially isolated 3D objects, the tolerance of large variation in surface reflectance, and the flexibility of tunable working distances with meter-square-level fields of view at video rate. To overcome these limitations, researchers at the INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre in Quebec, Canada developed a technique they termed Multi-Scale Band-Limited Illumination Profilometry or MS-BLIP. Supported by the synergy of dual-level intensity projection, multi-frequency fringe projection, and an iterative method for distortion compensation, MS-BLIP can accurately discern spatially separated 3D objects with highly varying reflectance.

The MS-BLIP system begins with a pulsed laser used as the light source. After expansion and collimation, the beam is directed to a 0.45” DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) at an incident angle of ∼24° to its surface normal. Binary fringe masks, generated by an error diffusion algorithm from their corresponding grayscale patterns, are loaded onto the DMD and displayed at up to 1 kHz. A band-limited 4f imaging system that consists of two lenses and one pinhole converts these binary patterns to grayscale fringes at the intermediate image plane. The smallest period in the used sinusoidal fringe patterns is 388.8 µm, which demands a 150-µm-diameter pinhole to pass the spatial frequency components of these patterns while filtering all noise induced by the digital half-toning. A dove prism rotates the generated fringe patterns to match the aspect ratio of the targeted scene. Then, a camera lens (AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR, Nikon) projects these fringe patterns onto 3D objects. The deformed structure images are captured by an Optronis CP70-1HS-M-1900 CoaXPress camera with an Azure lens. Synchronized by the DMD’s trigger signal, the acquired images are transferred to a computer via a cable to a BitFlow Cyton-CXP CoaXPress frame grabber built on a half-size x8 PCI Gen 3.0 express board compliant with the CXP 1.1 standard.

CoaXPress (CXP) is an asymmetric high-speed point-to-point serial communication standard for the transmission of video and still images, scalable over single or multiple coaxial cables. It has a high speed downlink of up to 12.5 Gbps per cable for video, images and data, plus a lower speed uplink up to 42 Mbps for communications and control. Power is also available over the cable (“Power-over-Coax”) and cable lengths of greater than 100m may be achieved.

“Applications for CoaXPress are evolving with new use cases being found in precise medical research and 3D inspection where Camera Link or GigE Vision previously were the go-to standard,” said Donal Waide, Director of Sales for BitFlow, Inc. “Speed combined with stability, plus a growing choice of compatible cameras, have sparked a great deal of interest for CoaXPress in laboratory settings.”

To demonstrate MS-BLIP’s potential in industrial inspection, researchers imaged the rotational movement of a bamboo vase with extending branches rotating at 0.6 rad/s. MS-BLIP was operated at a working distance of 2 meters (m), with an FOV of 1.5 m × 1.0 m, and at a 3D imaging speed of 20.8 frames-per-second (fps). Under these working conditions, the depth resolution was quantified to be 3.7 mm, and the lateral resolution was measured to be 1.7 mm. Close-up views of the vase presented detailed structural information on its surface with depth-encoded color changes of the branches reflecting the rotation movement of the object.

Along with testing with the rotational movements of a craft vase, MS-BLIP also proved successful in the dynamic 3D visualization of translational movements of an engineered box, and full human body movements at a measurement volume 3X greater than existing BLIP systems. Future work will be carried out to improve MS-BLIP’s imaging speed by adopting multiple cameras, a faster DMD, and a more powerful light source. Besides technical improvement, the researchers will continue to explore new applications including automated industrial inspection human-computer interaction.

High-speed dual-view band-limited illumination profilometry using temporally interlaced acquisition C Jiang, P Kilcullen, Y Lai, T Ozaki, J Liang Photonics Research 8 (11), 1808-1817, May 2022

BitFlow Debuts Fan-Cooled CoaXPress Frame Grabbers to Protect Industrial Mini-Computers

BitFlow Claxon and Cyton CXP frame grabbers engineered for the challenges of embedded computing where airflow cannot dissipate FPGA heat

WOBURN, MA, APRIL 28, 2021 — Configured with a powerful processor, ample storage, and an operating system, Small Form Factor (SFF PC) computers are becoming an essential part of the Industry 4.0 landscape, but present challenges in space-constrained embedded vision applications.

To save space, SFF PCs are typically fanless making them susceptible to overheating if airflow isn’t sufficient to dissipate heat from FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) processors that are often required to tackle demanding and intelligent vision tasks. The dense congestion of components within the SFF PC restricts airflow and space, which makes the use of many conventional cooling devices difficult to cool an FPGA.

To address thermal management challenges, BitFlow has engineered two new purpose-built frame grabbers featuring board-mounted micro fans to draw in cool air to replace hot air in the SFF PC. This dedicated design helps increase heat transfer from the FPGA while reducing the overall system size, and ensuring more reliable computing performance and preventing costly downtime.

Newly redesigned BitFlow Cyton CXP4-V and Claxon CXP4-V quad-channel frame grabbers were developed using the legacy architecture of their fan-less counterparts, so integrators can have complete confidence when selecting either of these field-proven designs for their vision systems. The Claxon CXP4 frame grabber is a quad CXP-12 PCIe Gen 3 frame grabber that supports one to four CXP-12 cameras and multi-link CXP-12 cameras, with CXP speeds from 3.25 to 12.5 Gb/S. Each connected camera has its own I/O and can draw up to 13 W of power. The Cyton CXP4 frame grabber is based on the CoaXPress 1.1 standard and has a Gen 2.0 x8 PCI Express bus interface on its back-end for high-speed access to host memory in multi-camera systems. Both frame grabbers support simple triggering modes and complicated, application-specific triggering and control interactions within any hardware environment.

“Although a small form factor PC consumes less power and produces less heat than its larger brethren, manufacturers are increasing the power of their microprocessors, putting more units per rack, and filling up the racks as much as possible, making overheating a serious issue,” said Donal Waide, Director of Sales for BitFlow. “With a lot of these small form factor PC’s the manufacturer is choosing to go fanless where possible but the powerful FPGA generates more heat than the heat syncs can dissipate quickly. Our new Cyton and Claxon CXP frame grabbers deliver extremely fast data transfer plus offer the added value of cooling protection for our customers’ computing investments.”

BitFlow Turbo-Charges Single Link Frame Grabber with Latest CoaXPress Standard

Claxon CXP1 designed for new generation of single link CXP-12 cameras

WOBURN, MA, SEPTEMBER 18, 2020 – BitFlow has expanded its Claxon™ series of high-performance CoaXPress CXP-12 frame grabbers with a new single link version that transfers image data from a CXP camera to the host memory at speeds up to 12.5 Gb/S, or twice the acquisition bandwidth of the previous generation of the CoaXPress standard. The BitFlow Claxon CXP1 provides developers of smaller-scale, yet complex vision systems with a deterministic, zero-latency pipeline ideal for applications that include aerospace, AOI, science and robotics, as well as high-speed linescan inspection of printed materials or textiles.

Like the Claxon CXP4 quad link model from BitFlow, the new frame grabber takes full advantage of a half-size PCI Express expansion bus and StreamSync™ DMA to deliver the sustained bandwidth needed to support acquisition from one of the new generation single-link CXP-12 cameras. Cameras are “plug-and-play” with automatic link speed and camera parameter detection.

In addition to transmitting bitrates up to 12.5 Gb/S, the Claxon CXP1 has an uplink interface of up to 41.6 Mbps, and further simplifies integration by supplying 13 watts of Safe Power through PoCXP — all on a single Coaxial cable using reliable micro-BNC (HD-BNC) connectors. Unlike USB3, Camera Link or other interfaces that rely on passive cable lengths of a few meters or less, the Claxon CXP1 frame grabber supports a 40-meter maximum cable length without the use of a repeater that could jeopardize signal integrity. Fanless passive cooling ensures extended use of the frame grabber without maintenance.

Claxon CXP1 frame grabbers are supported by BitFlow’s software development kit (SDK) to help developers in the configuration of vision systems. The SDK contains fully developed applications, and a variety of utilities and libraries, and supports both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows and Linux. Drivers for third party applications are also available, such as LabView, VisionPro and HALCON.

New Whitepaper to Help Machine Vision Designers Control CoaXPress Cameras for Greater Flexibility and Lower Costs

Claxon CXP4

WOBURN, MA, JUNE 23, 2020 – The challenges facing today’s machine vision integrators are more complicated and critical than ever before, as they strive to build faster, more accurate and cost-efficient systems in the wake of changing technology. To that end, BitFlow has published a new whitepaper Controlling CoaXPress Cameras from The BitFlow SDK Tools, Configuration File and APIs designed to help integrators new to the CoaXPress (CXP) standard introduce advanced CXP cameras into system infrastructure to shape positive outcomes.

CoaXPress is the world’s fastest standard for professional and industrial imaging applications such as machine vision, medical imaging, life sciences, broadcast and defense. It is an asymmetric point-to-point serial communication standard that transmits video and still images, scalable over single or multiple coaxial cables. It has a high speed downlink of up to 12.5 Gbps per cable for video, images and data, plus a lower speed uplink up to 42 Mbps for communications and control.

An invaluable learning tool, the 10-page whitepaper details the flexible CXP tools available in the BitFlow SDK (Software Development Kit), and how they work in concert to meet different application needs. It also provides examples showing optimization of a CXP machine vision system, accelerated and simplified by the BitFlow SDK.

The publication of the new whitepaper is part of the rollout of the new BitFlow Claxon CXP-12 PCIe Gen 3 frame grabber. CXP-12 is the latest CoaXPress speed jump, now transmitting video at 12. 5 Gb/S.

Get your copy here.

BitFlow Introduces SDK for NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier Development Kit

Jetson with a Claxon

BitFlow has released a Linux AArch64 (64-bit ARM) SDK that enables seamless integration of BitFlow frame grabbers with the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier Development Kit. 

Donal Waide, Director of Sales for BitFlow, states, “Many of our customers are already using GPU solutions such as NVIDIA for image processing so adding this option to the already large BitFlow suite of adapters was a natural progression for the company. BitFlow has been supporting Linux for several years across a variety of flavors.”

Added Waide, “BitFlow was one of the first frame grabber companies to support NVIDIA’s GPUDirect for Video technology. BitFlow and NVIDIA have worked together for a number of years already.” 

With the advent of the new machine vision standard CXP 2.0 where data rates are now up to 50 Gb/S, customers are looking to process more and more data and in shorter timeframes. For this, a GPU can typically perform these tasks much more effectively than a CPU. Even with slower data rates such as Camera Link’s (up to 850 MB/S) the ability to quickly process more complex algorithms is equally important. 

The NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier is the first computer designed specifically for autonomous machines. It has six Engines onboard for accelerated sensors data processing and running autonomous machines software, and offers the performance and power efficiency for fully autonomous machines.

FLIR Recommends BitFlow Cyton CXP-4 CoaXPress Frame Grabber for ResearchIR Software

BitFlow received an important endorsement of its CoaXPress™ frame grabbers from FLIR®, the world leader in the design, manufacture, and marketing of thermal imaging infrared cameras. FLIR has recommended the BitFlow Cyton CXP-4 CoaXPress™ as a preferred frame grabber for FLIR ResearchIR™ software, a powerful and easy to-use thermal analysis software package for FLIR Research & Development / Science cameras.

While ResearchIR software is compatible with a variety of PCI Express (PCIe) frame grabbers, FLIR highlighted the Cyton CXP-4 as being an optimal way to maximize its performance. ResearchIR software connects directly to FLIR cameras via a frame grabber to acquire thermal snapshots or movie files, or to customize recording options including start times, end times, and the number of frames to acquire. In addition to ResearchIR, FLIR recommends the Cyton CXP-4 for its Research Studio software and its BHP SDK (Software Development Kit) which is used to write custom GUIs.

In a technical note, FLIR explained that standard CoaXPress frame grabbers may be difficult to get up and running with its BHP SDK. However, it pointed out that when the Bitflow Cyton CXP-4 is resident in a workstation where ResearchIR has been loaded, both the driver and camera configuration files will already be installed, saving the integrator considerable time wasted downloading drivers and additional supporting software.

The BitFlow Cyton CXP4 four-channel frame grabber is based on the CoaXPress standard. It incorporates the Gen 2.0 x8 PCI Express bus interface on its back end, doubling the data rate of the Gen 1.0 bus for high-speed access to host memory in multicamera systems, while using the same compact footprint and connectors. By supporting the CoaXPress standard on its front end, the board facilitates video capture speeds of up to 6.25 Gb/s in applications deploying one to four CXP-6 cameras. It also allows control commands, triggers and power to be sent to and from cameras over the same 75 Ohm coaxial cable.

BitFlow in San Jose, California 2019

BitFlow will be exhibiting at the CRAV conference at the DoubleTree by Hilton San Jose from Tuesday November 12th through Wednesday November 13th.  Come stop by tabletop #63 to see our latest offerings.

BitFlow Debuts NVIDIA-Powered CoaXPress Embedded Vision Solution at Laser World Of Photonics

WOBURN, MA — BitFlow, Inc., a global innovator in frame grabber technology, underscored its commitment to embedded vision by demonstrating a high-speed CoaXPress-NVIDIA® embedded imaging system at the recent Laser World of Photonics Show in Munich, Germany. This Small Form Factor (SFF) solution was engineered with lower hardware requirements so it can reside in compact devices or be integrated directly into a larger mechanical or electrical system, all while minimizing space, cost and energy consumption.

“Embedded vision is still in its infancy, but it has the potential to transform industries and open up new imaging capabilities that are almost infinite,” said Donal Waide, Director of Sales for BitFlow. “Through our Innovation Labs division, BitFlow is leveraging the CoaXPress 2.0 interface to develop embedded systems that are faster, more intuitive, and easier to integrate throughout the factory, which is critical to success in the IIoT era.”

As building blocks, BitFlow’s CoaXPress-NVIDIA solution coupled the BitFlow Claxon-CXP4 Quad CXP-12 frame grabber with a NVIDIA Jetson TX2 high-density AI computing platform, and demonstrated with a JAI SP-12000C-CXP4 camera for image acquisition. HDMI, DisplayPort, DSI and eDP video ports provide flexibility in display choices. Dispensing with the need for a full-sized PC altogether, images relayed from the BitFlow Claxon frame grabber are more efficiently processed on the NVIDIA CPU. At Laser World of Photonics, for example, BitFlow demonstrated how its Claxon frame grabber provided Direct Memory Access (DMA) for 12 Megapixel images transferred into GPU memory where the NVIDIA processor performed 2D to 3D transformations in real time.

BitFlow Innovation Labs aims to usher in a host of next generation embedded solutions for the factory floor and beyond, radically changing the functionality of countless devices. Targeted applications include commercial drones, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), border and port security, robotics, portable medical machinery, and many other emerging market segments. Going even further, the BitFlow Innovation Labs foresees embedded systems that facilitate image recognition and deep learning capabilities so that Smart Factory networks can be proactive in making decisions based on the environment around them.

“We founded BitFlow Innovation Labs to accelerate the adoption of embedded vision and CoaXPress 2.0,” said Waide. “By delivering new platforms based on both technologies, we are providing systems integrators with faster, smaller and more cost-effective solutions to deploy even their most mission critical imaging applications.”

BitFlow in Munich, Germany 2019

BitFlow will be exhibiting at Laser World of Photonics in Munich from June 24th through June 27th.  Come visit us in Hall B2 Booth 127-3 to see our latest products!

BitFlow in Shanghai, China, March 20-22, 2019

BitFlow recently exhibited at Laser World of Photonics China at the Shanghai New International Expo Center.

Cameras from ISVI, Sentech, IO Industries and CIS Corp were on display highlighting our Cyton CXP4.

Our soon to be released Claxon CXP4, a CXP-12 frame grabber, was highlighted in a demo.

Our distributor, ATMV, also exhibited and had a few of our frame grabbers on display.

If you attended the show and did not get a chance to stop by our booth 1739 in Hall W1, please visit us online, submit an inquiry, or give us a call at 781-932-2900.