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Smart cameras are self contained Imaging systems. They contain the camera, the frqamegrabber, the processing unit and some interfacing capability such as ethernet, some digital I/O and/or a serial port. They are probably the largest growth area in the market at present as computing power becomes faster, cheaper and smaller.
They normally come with some form of Software Development Kit (SDK) and so basic I/O. So for most shop floor applications like robot guidance , OCR etc they are ideal where very high resolutions over 2M Pixels are not required.
They also don't require a knowledge of programming for the most part. Most can be programmed with user friendly drop down menus, however a knowledge of Machine Vision concepts such as lighting etc is a prerequisite.
Cognex are the market leader and have a very dominant position by virtue of being there longer than anyone else. The aquisition of DVC by Cognex in 2006 meant that they now had also taken a large chunk of the Lo End of the market.
As a rule of thumb, if you require High resolution, high frame rates and high speed computing, then you'll still need a PC based Imaging system. While the Smart Camera may take market share from traditional systems, it won't kill them..
As in the image on the right, an IP67 enclosure means that they can be used in relatively harsh enviornments.
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