SubscribeThe Olympus name has always been synonymous with quality optical products, including videoscope, fiberscope and borescope systems.
The launch of the new i-SPEED high-speed video system adds to the growing range of inspection equipment available.
High speed video (HSV) is used to analyse rapid motion by providing slow playback of an event. This technology is particularly useful in the maintenance of packaging machinery, as it can be used to locate faults while the equipment continues to operate at full speed.
With recent advances in PC performance and the introduction of imaging technology such as CMOS, a number of new HSV cameras have appeared on the market, many of them consisting of a CMOS camera head connected via a cable to a computer PCI card. Other approaches have been to design cameras with integral memory, but closely coupled to a PC via Fire Wire. Connection to a PC can be useful, but the necessity of physically tethering the camera to a PC is often a significant drawback in practice.
Consider the potential problems in setting up a PC on a busy factory floor, trying to capture the operation of a canning machine. Tethered PC/camera units tend to occupy floor real estate, which may be in short supply, and PCs tend to be inherently fragile and lack easy portability. The complexity of the PC software can also be an issue, generating significant learning curves and user frustration for maintenance staff.
A conventional camcorder is easy to use, and portable, so why should a high-speed video camera be any different?This is the lateral thinking behind the development undertaken by Olympus in the UK with their recently introduced i-SPEED high speed video camera system.
Olympus found that the use of a high-performance processor embedded in the camera could replace the PC, but at the same time maintain a PC interface that could still be used to download and archive video footage. Olympus also identified the need for a portable and rugged video monitor, which could be powered from the camera. This, with the addition of camera control buttons and an interactive graphical user interface, gave rise to a hand held Controller Display Unit (CDU).
This HSV system is especially suited to use by personnel who are unaccustomed to high-speed photography, because the graphical display clearly shows the functional options available to the user, without the need to refer to lengthy instruction manuals.
In order to achieve this desired level of functionality, it became apparent that additional electronics and video processing would be required. In a PC based camera, the PC software normally provides the colour processing, zoom and playback functions, with the camera’s video being displayed in a window on the PC screen. This is a convenient playback means, but the drawback is that the image processing speed is slow.
Embedded processors do not have sufficient power to process real-time video, so the team at Olympus were required to develop hardware-based video processing algorithms. This has brought significant improvements in processing speed compared with PCs. The i-SPEED camera is able to provide a smooth, real-time viewfinder, even while recording. This is especially useful while working alongside heavy machinery, as it allows the user to quickly set-up the camera in real time.
The Olympus i-SPEED high speed video camera and CDU controller/display unit
By careful consideration of the needs of the industrial HSV user, Olympus has produced a high-speed video camera with a unique combination of portability, versatility and ruggedness.
Sample video clips taken with the Olympus i-SPEED camera can be seen on-line at http://www.olympusindustrial.com/i-Speed.