AIA targets USB3 camera interface standard for 2012 release

Oct. 6, 2011
The Automated Imaging Association has initiated development of the new camera interface standard based on the USB 3.0 interface (SuperSpeed USB) for machine-vision application.

The Automated Imaging Association (AIA; Ann Arbor, MI, USA) has initiated development of the newcamera interface standard based on the USB 3.0 interface (SuperSpeed USB) for machine-vision application. Announced as USB3 Vision, the standard will be designed for plug-and-play capability of machine-vision components from various manufacturers, offering power and data over one passive cable, up to 5 m long, at a bandwidth of 3.2 Gbits/s, or over active cable 10 m or longer.

TheUSB3 Vision kickoff meeting was held from Sept. 12-14, 2011, in Ahrensburg, Germany. The committe has been joined by suppliers including 3M, Adimec, Allied Vision Technologies, Basler Vision Technologies, Baumer Optronic, Components Express Inc., Gidel Ltd., Hamamatsu Corp., Matrix Vision, Matrox Imaging, Mathworks, MVTec Software, National Instruments, Point Grey Research, Silicon Software, Sony Visual Imaging Products, Stemmer Imaging, Teledyne DALSA, Toshiba Teli Corp., and Ximea.

The standard will address four basic operations, without having to factor in camera functionality: device discovery, device control, event handling, and streaming data. It defines the mechanics of screw locks for USB3 Vision connectors, based on the micro-USB 3.0 connector, in various cable angles. A device can optionally support device functionality with USB 2.0. A white paper outlining the details of the standard is available by request from AIA.

According to USB3 Vision committee chair Eric Gross (National Instruments), the standard specification is under way with targeted release of mid-2012 and will be hosted by AIA. "The architecture of the standard is based on existing consumer hardware and draws from widely-adopted vision standards such as GenICam. We expect this combination to reduce the time-to-market for a multitude of USB3 Vision components," says Gross.

SOURCE:AIA

-- Posted byVision Systems Design

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