VisionGauge® OnLine
Latest
Enhancements
We are
continuously
working to improve VisionGauge® OnLine. Here is
an overview
of the main improvements and new features that have recently been added
to VisionGauge® OnLine:
Added in
version
5.19 (dated October 23rd 2007):
-
We've add a Live Image
Overlay
Tool to VisionGauge(r) OnLine.
VisionGauge® OnLine’s Live Image Overlay tool allows you to superimpose
drawings and various geometric elements over your cameras live video
stream.
VisionGauge® OnLine’s Live Image Overlay tool is the ultimate “digital
video comparator”.
VisionGauge®
OnLine’s Live Image Overlay
tool includes a Live Image Overlay Builder that allows you to create
drawings
as well as a wide range of geometric constructs (i.e. lines,
crosshairs,
bulls-eyes as well as calibrated grids, circles and angles, etc…).
VisionGauge®
OnLine’s Live Image Overlay Builder supports multi-colored live image
overlays
and is perfectly suited for a wide range of part alignment and
tolerance
verification applications.
VisionGauge®
OnLine’s Live Image Overlay
tool also supports DXF-format CAD files. When you read a DXF file into
the Live Image Overlay Builder, VisionGauge® OnLine can automatically
scale the drawing to match up with the system optical calibration. This
means that if the item measures one inch in the CAD drawing, it will
appear
on the screen as a one-inch object under the camera. VisionGauge®
OnLine
also supports a number of other scaling and drawing offset settings.
This
is the perfect tool to use when comparing a part against its CAD
drawing:
VisionGauge® OnLine scales the CAD drawing appropriately and draws
it “on top of the part”! VisionGauge® OnLine’s Live Image Overlay
Builder
with DXF-format CAD file support allows you to quickly and accurately
determine
how well a part matches up with its CAD file definition.

-
In the “Settings |
Image display
settings” menu option, we
added the ability to display the image in either 1:3 or 1:5 resolution
(along with the previous 1:1, 1:2 and 1:4 image display resolutions)
-
We’ve updated the
drivers’
library for the hardware security
key (to support all of the most recent computers and operating systems).
-
Enhanced support for
Galil DMC
motion controller
-
We’ve added a units
string to
the output file of Data Groups
with numerical values.
-
We’ve added new
extended
automated LASER Profiling measurement
tools in VisionGauge® OnLine, to automatically carry out fast &
accurate 3D measurements.
With VisionGauge® OnLine LASER
profiling measurement
tools, Z-axis measurements can typically be carried out with the same
speed
as regular (X,Y) measurements.
VisionGauge®
OnLine’s
LASER profiling tools have no
a priori restrictions regarding the part geometry and they can deal
with
a wide range of 3D geometries.
Added in version
5.00
(dated August 7th 2007):
-
This version of
VisionGauge(r)
OnLine contains generalized
performance enhancements. These global optimizations produce
performance
gains in all of VisionGauge(r) OnLine's tools, with the most
CPU-intensive
tools reaping the greatest benefit from these generalized enhancements.
The following chart shows results for various tools, in
representative
test cases:

Added in version
4.35
(dated May 23rd 2007):
-
In the Program
Toolbox's "Image
Capture" tool, when you specify
that you want to read in images from a sequence, you can indicate that
the sequence is finite and you can specify the last number in the
sequence,
i.e.:

When
VisionGauge® OnLine
reaches the last number in
the sequence it then "resets" its internal counter to the "First number
in the sequence".
- We've improved
performance for "concurrent calculations"
(i.e. simultaneous motion & image analysis)...
-
We've added support
for the
Galil servo motor controller.
-
We've enhanced the
"Timer Tool"
(accessed through the "Tools
| Timer..." menu option) so that the "Latest time (s)" (i.e. the most
recent
time interval) is also displayed.
-
We've added an option
to
automatically save the contents
of a data group to file in the Program Toolbox's "Statistics &
Data
Groups" tool. Note that if this file already exists when the tool is
run,
its contents will be overwritten.
-
In the Program
Toolbox's "Motion
Control" tool, we've added
the ability to "Register using a Datum". This allows you to carry out
translation
registration (i.e. to correct for translation error, but not for
rotation).
This tool is very simple to use.
When you setup a
program, include a pattern matching operation (either Correlation-Based
or Feature-Based Pattern Matching) and save the pattern location as a
Datum
(for example: save it as Datum #1). When you do this, make sure that
the
stage coordinates are correct (i.e. makes sure that the part has been
registered
with either the "Set Zero" or "Set" tools in the Motion Toolbox).
Then, after the
Pattern
Matching operation, include a
"Motion Control" operation in your program and indicate that you wish
to
"Register using Datum #1".
When you run
the program,
the Pattern Matching tool will
find the pattern and save its location as Datum #1. The Motion Control
operation will then correct the stage position so that the datum (i.e.
the pattern) is at the same coordinates as when you setup the program.
This is a way
to
automatically carry out translation registration
that is fast, accurate and simple.
-
We've added support
for the Sony
XCI-SV1 Smart Camera.
-
We've added a "Home
All" button
in the motion toolbox, as
well as a "home polarity" option (for each axis in the motion control
config
DB). Note that the stage position is set to 0 once the stage reaches
the
limits of travel in the specified direction...
-
We've added a "Home"
option in
the Program Toolbox's "Motion
Control" tool. Note that the axis position is set to "0" at the end of
the operation...
- In the manual Counting
& Sizing tool, we've added extra
settings that allow you to carry out "object disconnect" as well as
"object-reconnect"
calculations. These are in fact what are referred to as "erosion" and
"dilation"
calculations in image processing. You can also specify the "disconnect
factor" (in pixels), which is in fact the size of the neighborhood to
consider.
So, for example, a disconnect factor of 1 corresponds to a neighborhood
of 3 pixels (i.e. plus or minus one pixel on each side).
-
We've carried out
similar
enhancements in the Program Toolbox's
"Counting & Sizing" tool (i.e. for "automated" Counting
& Sizing
operations...).
-
We've also added
"Current"
values in the Program Toolbox's
"Counting & Sizing" tool (i.e. the current values are displayed
while
you're setting up the tool).
- We've added the ability
to auto-load a program on startup...
(through the Program Toolbox's "Settings" menu command.
-
We've added support
for
user-defined strings. A string can
be captured from the use in the "Wait" instruction and the string can
be
used as a filename in the "Statistics and Data Groups" tool...
- We've added support for
the Sony XCI-V3 Smart Camera.
-
We have added a "Step"
button to
the Program Toolbox, i.e.:

This new button allows
you to
"single step" through a
program (i.e. run it one instruction at a time).
- You can now change the
current illumination settings directly
from within the Program Toolbox's "Set Illumination" window.
-
The Settings Toolbox
has been
enhanced to support up to 8
light sources.
-
We've added support
for up to 8
programmable, computer-controlled
light sources when used in conjunction with the multi-function board.
-
We've added a "Send
Camera
Command String" tool in the Program
Toolbox. You can use this new tool to send a serial port command to the
camera during a program?s execution. You can also specify a delay
between
the send and receive operations. The camera reply string is displayed
in
the status box at the bottom of the main VisionGauge® OnLine window.
-
We've added an "Image
Acquisition Hardware" dialog box to
the View sub-menu...
-
We've carried out
performance
enhancements to the Feature-based
pattern matching tool (by carrying out more extensive pre-computations,
among other things). Also, we've added a new demo program (called
"FeatureBased_PatternMatching2.prg")
to demonstrate the use of this tool.
-
We've improved the
performance
of the Correlation-based pattern
matching tool (by carrying out more extensive pre-computations).
-
We've added a "Manual
Assist on
Fail" enhancement in both
the Correlation-Based Pattern Matching and the Feature-Based Pattern
Matching
tools.
To activate this tool, simply
check the "Manual Assist
on Fail" checkbox in either Pattern Matching tool. When this is the
case
and the result of a Pattern Matching operation is "Fail", the following
occurs:
-
The program's
execution is
stopped and a "Manual Assist"
window is displayed.
Note that the size of this
window automatically increases,
if the pattern image is very large.
Also, note that the
pattern
image in this window is displayed
in the same way as the main image in the main window (i.e. the display
settings set through the main window's "Settings | Image Display
Settings"
menu command are applied in the same way in both cases).
-
In the main image,
VisionGauge® OnLine displays, using
a rectangular box, the location of the pattern that it found. The
corresponding
X and Y positions (in pixels) are also displayed in the "Manual Assist"
window. Also, the Correlation Coefficient is displayed in the "Manual
Assist"
window.
-
The user can the
move the
mouse across the main image and
a crosshair (with the same width & height as the pattern image)
"follows"
the mouse pointer. When the user clicks the left mouse button, the
"rectangular
box" is displayed at this new location, the X and Y pixel position
values
are updated and the value of the Correlation Coefficient at this new
location
is also displayed.
-
The user can repeat
this
operation as often as he likes.
-
When he is satisfied
with
everything, he simply clicks the
Manual Assist Window's "OK" button and the updated values are applied.
Also, if the user clicks "Cancel" then whatever the user did is
disregarded
and the Program's execution is terminated.
-
Note also that there
is a "Set
Pattern Matching result to
PASS" checkbox that lets the user override the initial "Fail" result
(regardless
of the new Correlation Coefficient value).
Also, note that:
-
The user can locate
the
pattern anywhere on the image (not
only within this step's Pattern Matching ROI)
-
If the user presses
the
Program Toolbox's "Stop" button while
the Manual Assist tool is active, the program is immediately terminated
and the "Manual Assist" window is closed.
-
We've added an option
to "Clear
Offsets" in the Program Toolbox's
Motion
Control tool.
-
We've enhanced the
Program
Toolbox's "Jump" tool so that
it is now possible to jump either to a relative or an absolute position
in a program.
- We have added support
for the latest PIXCI framegrabber drivers.
-
We've enhanced
VisionGauge®
OnLine and adjusted the initial
image size so that it matches up with the initial image display
settings.
This way, the initial "startup" image always looks properly sized...
Click on this
link to see a list of previous enhancements...

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