One of the newest trends in machine vision systems is the implementation of so-called “smart cameras.” A smart camera combines the usual image sensor with a built-in processor, which allows inspections to be run directly on the camera, thereby eliminating a step in the process. Instead of simply capturing images, like a conventional camera, a smart camera can analyze those images, interpret the data, and deliver the results. Smart cameras are also designed to perform many advanced functions normal cameras can’t such as edge detection, geometric pattern matching, optical character recognition, and 2-D barcode reading.

The hardest part of building a machine vision inspection system utilizing smart cameras is programming the application. For machine builders who aren’t comfortable writing software, there are two basic approaches they can take. The first is to configure the inspection system using a commercially available, no-programming, menu-driven machine vision software package. The second option, for engineers who have experience with a graphical programming language, is to use NI LabVIEW RealTime with NI’s Vision Development Module.

In a feature article in the March issue of Imaging Technology magazine, Matthew Slaughter of National Instruments explains some of the finer points of designing machine vision systems with smart cameras. Read the full article on page IIa of the March issue of Imaging Technology.

Read the full story here.

A research scientist at the University of Michigan has created what may be the world’s most powerful laser beam. The record-setting beam measures 20 billion trillion watts per square centimeter and contains 300 terrawatts of power. That’s roughly 300-times the capacity of the US electrical grid. The laser beam’s power is concentrated in a 1.3-micron speck that is only about 1/100th the diameter of a human hair.

According to Victor Yanovsky, the scientist who spent the last six years building the ultra-high-power laser system, the pulsed laser beam lasts just 30 femtoseconds, but its intensity is about two orders of magnitude higher than that produced by any other laser in the world. A femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second. The system uses a technique known as chirped pulse amplification, which relies on grooved surfaces called diffraction gratings to stretch a very short duration laser pulse so that it lasts 50,000 times longer. This stretched pulse can then be amplified to much higher energy without damaging the optics in its path.

Aside from the potential medical applications, which include cancer treatment, extreme intensity laser beams could one day lead to potential applications in inertial confinement fusion research, coaxing low-mass atoms to join together into heavier ones, releasing energy in the process.

Read the full story here.

A new technology called FINCH (Fresnel INcoherent Correlation Holography), invented by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, could make three-dimensional imaging quicker, easier and less costly than current methods. According to Gary Brooker, director of Johns Hopkins University’s Microscopy Center and a co-inventor of this new technology, the FINCHSCOPE, a 3-D microscope built using FINCH technology, uses microscope objectives with the highest resolving power, a spatial light modulator, a charge coupled device (CCD) camera, and some filters to acquire 3-D microscopic images without having to scan multiple planes.

“Normally, 3-D imaging requires taking multiple images on multiple planes,” stated Brooker, a research professor of chemistry in Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. “For this reason, holography currently is not widely applied to the field of 3-D fluorescence microscopic imaging.” Brooker also believes the technology could one day lead to 3-D video. “With traditional 3-D imaging, you cannot capture a moving object,” he explained. “With the FINCHSCOPE, you can photograph multiple planes at once, enabling you to capture a 3-D image of a moving object.”

FINCH technology could have numerous applications in the medical field including endoscopy, ophthalmology, CT scanning, x-ray imaging, and ultrasounds. Another potential application may be homeland security screening.

Read the full story here.

A team led by Jun Ye, a physicist at JILA – a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder – demonstrated an optical technique for simultaneously identifying tiny amounts of a broad range of molecules in the breath, potentially enabling a fast, low-cost screening tool for disease.

The researchers analyzed human breath with frequency combs, which are generated by a laser specially designed to produce a series of very short, equally spaced pulses of light. The laser generates light as a series of very narrow frequency peaks equally spaced – like the teeth of a comb – across a broad spectrum. By detecting which colors of light were absorbed and in what amounts, the researchers could detect specific molecules and their concentrations.

The optical comb approach allows the researchers to simultaneously analyze a very broad spectrum, covering many possible molecular compounds with high precision, frequency resolution, and sensitivity. The technique could lead to one of the first widespread applications of frequency combs.

Read more here.

A robotic arm tool for rapidly acquiring permafrost (RATRAP) is being developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPO). The RATRAP is for acquiring samples of permafrost on Mars or another remote planet and immediately delivering the samples to adjacent instruments for analysis.
Read more here.

JPO has created a high-voltage power supply that is able to contain voltages up to –20 kV, keep electrical field strengths to below 200 V/mil (≈7.87 kV/mm), and can provide a 200- nanosecond rise/fall time focus modulator swinging between cathode potential of 16.3 kV and –19.3 kV.
Read more here.

An induction charge detector with multiple sensing stages has been conceived by JPO for use in characterizing sprayed droplets, dust particles, and large ionized molecules. Each stage yields a measurement of the electric charge and the time of flight of the particle.
Read more here.