FEBRUARY 3--Wells Research and Development (WRD; San Jose, CA; www.wellsresearch.com/), developer of innovative instrumentation for challenging optical measurement and alignment tasks, announced at Photonics West PixelScope Professional, a new Windows-based image-analysis software package for engineers who need to incorporate live image capture into optical inspection, alignment, or assembly fixtures. PixelScope Professional supports real-time image capture and display, with zoom down to the pixel level.
The software includes an array of built-in tools that perform important measurement tasks, including cross-section plots, histograms, and distance measurements. PixelScope Professional requires no programming, allowing the typical engineer to make sophisticated image quality measurements within minutes of setup. The software runs under Windows 2000 or XP and is part of the AlignmentStudio family of modular optical tools.
With PixelScope Professional, images can be captured and displayed in real time at frames rates from 30/s to 3.75/s. Pan and zoom are supported down to the level of individual pixels. Complete images or sections of an image can be saved to disk or copied to the clipboard. Images can also be exported as arrays of numbers for import into other programs, such as Microsoft Excel. To reduce noise, images can be averaged over multiple camera frames. The output of multiple cameras can be displayed simultaneously by opening multiple PixelScope windows.
PixelScope Professional includes a set of intuitive, point-and-click image analysis tools that operate on an ROI (region of interest) selected by the user. The tools include cross-section plots along x or y, histograms, and direct distance measurement via the mouse-driven caliper. PixelScope provides additional flexibility through a series of expansion modules that support such advanced functions as sub-pixel feature location measurement, edge finding, blob analysis, and encircled energy. An ActiveX module turns PixelScope into an ActiveX server that can stream live data to other applications such as Microsoft Excel, Visual Basic, and MatLab; the ActiveX module allows PixelScope to be run stand-alone or as a client to other programs. Depending on the user, PixelScope can act as a front-end to other software or can be completely controlled by another program.
