Fast vision system
AssigneeCognex Corporation
InventorsSateesh Nadabar, William Equitz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for performing a vision process using a camera having a multi-focus lens having a lens field of view where the lens can be set at different focus positions the method comprising the steps of positioning at least one of the camera and an item to be imaged so the lens field of view is directed at the item to be imaged, obtaining a plurality of images where each image is obtained with the lens focus at a different position and after each image is obtained, attempting to perform the machine vision process using the image irrespective of whether or not the lens was focused when the image was obtained.
Claims15
A system for performing a vision process using a camera having a variable-focus lens having a lens field of view where the lens can be set at different focus positions, the system comprising:
- a processor programmed to perform the steps of:
- setting an
- image-independent formation setting;
- controlling the camera to obtain a subset of images at each of a plurality of different image-independent lens focus positions where the image-independent image formation setting is different for each of the images obtained at each image-independent lens focus position;
- and
- after each image is obtained and while obtaining additional images, attempting to perform the vision process on the images;
- wherein the vision process includes one of locating a symbol in obtained images and decoding a symbol in obtained images.
A system for performing a vision process using a camera having a variable-focus lens having a lens field of view where the lens can be set at different focus positions, the system comprising:
- a processor programmed to perform the steps of:
- setting an
- image-independent image formation setting;
- obtaining a subset of images at each of a plurality of different lens focus positions where the image formation setting is different for each of the images obtained at each lens focus position;
- and
- after each image is obtained and while obtaining additional images, attempting to perform the vision process on the images.
A system for facilitating a machine vision process using a camera having a variable-focus lens having a lens field of view, the system comprising:
- a processor programmed to perform the steps of:
- a. setting the lens at an image-independent focus position;
- b. setting an image-independent image formation setting;
- c. obtaining an image of the item with the lens at the focus position and with the set image formation setting;
- d. attempting to perform the machine vision process on the image;
- e. while performing step (d), initiating steps (b) through (d) using a different image formation setting to obtain a next image of the item;
- and
- f. after a subset of images have been obtained using different image formation settings at the focus position, while performing step (d), initiating steps (a) through (e) using a next focus position to obtain a next image of the item where the next focus position is different than any previous focus position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.