Remember Me
forgot your password?

Choosing a Camera for Your Product

Intended Audience

The Article is intended for product managers who are interested in integrating camera in to their products and are in need of a complete solution starting with lens assembly, choosing the right sensor for their application and finally provide the Linux/Windows CE/Windows Mobile drivers with appropriate applications.

Choosing the camera and the software

One of the most frequent questions we receive is how do I choose the right camera. By camera we mean the right CMOS sensor with the right lens assembly. Here are the questions the product manager should ask before choosing the camera

* Do I require a fixed focus or an auto focus camera?

* Does my application need capture at very close distances like 10cm or do I need to capture pictures beyond 20m? How far is my target object from the camera?

* What is the resolution I need to support my application?

* Do I need an OS to use the camera? If yes, what OS should I use?

* Is my environment noisy?

* What type of sensor do I need?

* What is the ambient lighting condition for my application? What is the performance level expected in low-light condition?

* If my application requires video capture, what is the capture rate required at the desired capture resolution?

* If my application requires preview, what is the preview resolution required and preview fps (frames per second) required? How much processing is required after capture of each frame?

* How can I interface e-CAM with my target board? What are the requirements on power supply, clock and interfacing?

Let's take an example here. If the need of the customer is to capture data from a visiting card then the camera needs to have a fixed focal length and that needs to be less than 10cm. By fixed focal length, the distance between the camera and the object of focus is fixed with 30-40% variance in distance. Also a VGA resolution is good enough for this type of application since the capture area is very small. The application here such as scanning the visiting card and getting the data out of it would involve programming in a high level language and would use many commonly available libraries that run on top of an OS like Windows/Linux. Hence a need of an OS becomes necessary. If the environment is noisy then it is important to choose a sensor that has a high S/N ratio. Finally applications like this need a black and white sensor

Another example would be if the customer wants to capture pictures at variable distances from the camera. This would mean the customer needs an auto focus camera and if the customer needs to capture Video and save it or would want to give an application interface for the end user to develop applications using the camera, it would become mandatory to go for a standard interface like Microsoft Direct show or Video for Linux.

Read Full Article on http://www.e-consystems.com/choosingcamera.asp

This Article would serve as a reference to customers interested in using e-con’s e-CAM solution or use its Windows CE/Linux/Windows Mobile* sol

e-con Systems

e-con Systems specializes in providing end-end product engineering services in embedded domain. This involves various stages such as converting the customer’s concept of the product in to detailed requirement specification to manufacturing the final end product and shipping it back to the customer.

Rate this Article: 0 / 5 stars - 0 vote(s)
Print Email Re-Publish

Add new Comment



Captcha

  • Latest Electronics Articles
  • More from e-con Systems

China Sourcing Report Car Electronics

By: Bharat Book Bureau | 01/01/2010
Bharatbook.com added a new report on "China Sourcing Report Car Electronics" which focuses on the main car electronics items exported from China.

Delonghi Portable Air Conditioner - Pinguino

By: Ben J Parker | 01/01/2010
Italian design and production has always been admired for it's quality control, good taste and flair. This makes the stylish Delonghi Pinguino an admired Delonghi portable air conditioner.

LG Portable Air Conditioner

By: Ben J Parker | 01/01/2010
LG is a large and respected international company and has been for some years. They produce a number of different appliances and gadgets ranging from refrigerators to portable air conditioners.

Sharp Portable Air Conditioner

By: Ben J Parker | 01/01/2010
The sharp company is a well respected and established company. It has been designing and manufacturing air conditioners to meet the diverse and ever changing requirements of different customer demographics.

How to choose a Digital Camcorder

By: John Graham | 31/12/2009
123discountshop offers you to buy online quality camcorders. Take advantage of the User-Selectable Audio Coverage feature to focus on an individual speaker or group of speakers

Is your Alarm Clock dangerously close to your bed?

By: Paul Ingersole | 31/12/2009
There are also wind up alarm clocks that you can set as well. While they aren’t as popular as they once were they do work well without any battery or electricity. They are a good option for traveling since hotel alarm clocks can be difficult to figure out. You can also use them on camping trips so you get up early enough to watch the sun rise.

Analyzing Mp3 Players Format and CD Format

By: ann4369 | 31/12/2009
MP3 player are bringing popular even through several generation.

Learn Some entertaining features on the subject line of MP3 Players

By: ann4369 | 31/12/2009
MP3 players can be considered as the current growth in music industry.

Submit Your Articles Free: Signup
Article Categories




Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy | User published content is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Copyright © 2005-2008 Free Articles by ArticlesBase.com, All rights reserved. (0.23, 1, w2)