August 28, 2013 – Richmond, BC, Canada – Point Grey, a world-leading designer and manufacturer of innovative, high-performance digital cameras, today announced plug-and-play interoperability between Point Grey’s Flea®3 USB3 Vision cameras and NI Vision Acquisition Software, Vision Builder for Automated Inspection (AI) and LabVIEW Vision Development Module.
USB3 Vision is a machine vision interface standard designed to enable seamless integration between USB 3.0 cameras, cables and image processing libraries from different vendors. The standard defines a stream and control protocol, which leverages the success of GigE Vision and GenICam by relying on a standard format naming convention (SFNC) to maintain consistency in functionality and attribute naming. Existing GigE Vision users will be able to seamlessly transition to USB3 Vision and vice versa.
Point Grey and National Instruments are founding members of the USB3 Vision Committee and key contributors to the development of this standard. Point Grey started the development effort early by demonstrating a USB 3.0 camera prototype in 2009. Eighteen USB 3.0 camera models have been introduced since.
“We are pleased to have been a long-standing partner with Point Grey in the development of USB3 Vision. By gaining early access to USB3 Vision cameras and preliminary firmware from machine vision camera manufacturers such as Point Grey, National Instruments was able to start testing compatibility early and ultimately announce support for USB3 Vision at this year’s NIWeek in Austin, Texas, earlier this month,” says Eric Gross, Senior Software Engineer at National Instruments. “Enabling compatibility with National Instruments vision software, the first of many USB3 Vision enabled image processing libraries, demonstrates that this interface standard has become a reality. Our goal has always been to enable interoperability with other USB3 Vision-compliant devices and software, while also maintaining backward compatibility for Point Grey’s existing customer base, ” says Michael Gibbons, Director of Sales and Marketing at Point Grey.
Existing Point Grey customers can download the USB3 Vision supported firmware for the Flea3 FL3-U3-13S2 models directly from Point Grey’s website. Support for remaining Flea3 and Grasshopper3 USB 3.0 models will be provided later this year.
Version 1.0 of the USB3 Vision specification is available for download to the public for free on the AIA website: www.visiononline.org.
About National Instruments
Since 1976, National Instruments (www.ni.com) has equipped engineers and scientists with tools that accelerate productivity, innovation and discovery. NI’s graphical system design approach to engineering provides an integrated software and hardware platform that speeds the development of any system needing measurement and control. The company’s long-term vision and focus on improving society through its technology supports the success of its customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders.
About Point Grey
Point Grey Research, Inc. is a world-leading designer and manufacturer of innovative, high-performance digital cameras for industrial, life science and traffic applications. We offer a unique and comprehensive portfolio of USB 3.0, GigE, FireWire, USB 2.0 and Camera Link products known for their outstanding quality, ease of use and unbeatable price-performance. Point Grey was founded in 1997 and is based in Richmond, Canada. A broad range of hardware, software and mechanical engineering skills under one roof has allowed Point Grey to successfully bring many innovative and ground-breaking products to market. This drive for innovation has led to many industry firsts, including the world’s first and smallest 1394b digital camera, the smallest GigE camera and the first USB 3.0 machine vision camera. Point Grey currently employs over 160 people and has international offices in Germany, China, Japan and Italy. The company also has a strong network of distributors in Japan, Korea, Singapore, China, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.ptgrey.com.
