Embedded Line Scan Image Sensors: The Low Cost Alternative for High Speed Imaging
This provides a cost-effective solution for high-speed imaging applications, though it is incremental as it adapts existing components rather than introducing new technology.
The authors tackled the high cost of industrial line scan imaging systems by developing a low-cost alternative using off-the-shelf components, achieving comparable image quality at about 20 times lower cost.
In this paper we propose a low-cost high-speed imaging line scan system. We replace an expensive industrial line scan camera and illumination with a custom-built set-up of cheap off-the-shelf components, yielding a measurement system with comparative quality while costing about 20 times less. We use a low-cost linear (1D) image sensor, cheap optics including a LED-based or LASER-based lighting and an embedded platform to process the images. A step-by-step method to design such a custom high speed imaging system and select proper components is proposed. Simulations allowing to predict the final image quality to be obtained by the set-up has been developed. Finally, we applied our method in a lab, closely representing the real-life cases. Our results shows that our simulations are very accurate and that our low-cost line scan set-up acquired image quality compared to the high-end commercial vision system, for a fraction of the price.