Optoluchs
The Optoluchs image processing system from 1987 belongs to the first generation of VMEbus systems for the area of machine vision . As one of the first industrial image processing systems, Optoluchs digitized the video image coming from an analog matrix camera into a pixel grid of 512 by 512 pixels (picture elements) and quantized the image contrast in 256 gray levels. These image data were stored in a 1 megabyte image memory. The image memory was designed for 4 full images. The development was carried out by the engineering company RSB.
Optoluchs was the first machine vision system developed in Europe to work with LCAs (logic cell arrays). Today these components are used as FPGAs in many complex electronic circuits. This technology enabled a very compact circuit design, so that in addition to the frame grabber hardware for connecting up to 8 video cameras, real-time hardware for object edge detection was also integrated in Optoluchs.
The image data were evaluated using specially developed software routines in accordance with the visual inspection or measurement tasks. As early as 1988, Optoluchs used a sub-pixel algorithm with which the resolution of the camera for determining the edge location could in fact be improved by a factor of 10.
Measurement and control tasks that could be carried out using image processing are:
- Controlling LCD Displays (1987)
- Edge distance measurement and diameter measurement on stamped parts (1987)
- Cable diameter and cable profile measurement (1989)
- Measurement of tool setting dimensions (1988)
- Angle measurement on injection nozzles (1989)
- Measurement of turned parts (1990)
- Measurement and sorting of valve guides (1991)