Where can I locate Scorpion Camera Drivers?

Everything is located in the Scorpion Online Help – section cameras.

Can Scorpion access SQL databases?

Using Python and Scorpion can access any SQL database from Microsoft, Oracle or the open source MySQL. We use a generic ODBC interface.

The following procedure is performed to test this using the free MS SQL Express 2008.

1. Install MS SQL Express 2008

• MSSQL express can be downloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads

2. Attach DB mdf file from Example_SQL_Express_DB.zip

• See mssql_attatch_example.JPG to the right
  

  MS SQL Server Attach

3. Configure ODBC

• MS SQL Express and ODBC setup for Python

4. Restore Example_Scorpion_profile.zip

The sample profile located in the SQL-Examples.zip should be restored.

5. Customize Test script

The user can modify the Test script 18th line. Located in the Scorpion tab Service/Advance/Central.

6. Execute Test script in the Scorpion (Service/Advance/Central)

Are there sample profiles for .Net and Scorpion?

There are numerous examples for using .Net with Scorpion in Scorpion Online Help

• .Net 1.1 samples
• .Net 2.0 samples

Information on how to convert a .Net 1.1 sample to .Net 2.0.

Can Scorpion be extended by the .Net Framework?

.Net with Scorpion opens up Scorpion to the large .Net Framework and the possibility to easily integrate your own .Net object expanding the capabilities of Scorpion Vision Software. The main new features are:

• Add custom status information to Scorpion tab-pages
• Add custom dialog and status windows to Scorpion
• Implement project specific GUI
• Add high performance – high priority image aquisition and custom interfaces to external devices

The use of .Net with Scorpion is based on Python for .Net (http://www.zope.org/Members/Brian/PythonNet).  The “readme” page here is an important source for information regarding the use of .NET components from python scripts.

Python for .NET is a near-seamless integration of the Python runtime with the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR). It lets you script and build applications in Python, using CLR services and components written in any language that targets the CLR

• Scorpion Vision 4.2 to 7.3 supports .Net Framework version 1.1
• Scorpion Vision 8.0 support .Net Framework 2.0

Read more in Scorpion Online Help.

Can Scorpion process images offline?

One important offline verification feature is Scorpion is the HistoryList.  More information Scorpion Online Help. The history list is used to:

• Keep the N latest image in memory

These images can be used for:

• Verify toolbox configuration
• Save select and large reference sets of images for system verification

Scorpion Vision can easily be set up to only keep the interesting images. For example the FAIL images only.

It is of course also possible to configure Scorpion to save selected images in bmp or jpg format. Jpg format if compression is a acceptable option. Experience with Scorpion Vision tends to favour using the history list to collect images for reference sets because saving images automatically tends to capture too many images.

System verification with hundreds or thousands of selected images is very important when doing system verification.

Can Scorpion handle multiple cameras?

One of the strongest points about Scorpion Vision Software is it’s capabilities to handle multiple cameras. To show how this is done we have made a demo profile showing a how easy four  cameras are handled and the image processing is divided into toolboxes.

Assembly Verification Demo

In this fine demo profile the following tasks are demonstrated:

• Gauging
• Color object counting
• Indentification and location
  • dynamic reference systems and resampling
• Object presence

Goto to Scorpion Online Help to download the demo profile.

Can we do color with Scorpion Vision?

Yes we can! The images is processed with the ColorAnalyzer tool. This tools classifies an area into a color class based on reference images.

Scorpion ColorAnalyzer Demo

In this demo the area of each fruit is measured and the fruits are counted.

More information and demo profile is found in Scorpion Online Help.

How to configure TemplateFinder3 to do OCR?

Reading Number Plate 7420

This section examines how the TemplateFinder3 – TF3 – is used to do OCR. It is based on the demo located in “Can Scorpion do OCR?”

The following steps are needed to configure TemplateFinder3:

1. Add templates for each character

The system is teached by adding template for each character you need to decode. Below the character 4 is shown.

OCR Template for character 4

Note the following:

• Name is to “4” – this is done to tell Scorpion the symbol the template represents
• Use subImage is activated with a threshold of 120 – this is doe to require that this area is present in the template

2. Setup Advanced

1. Decimation is activated to speed up processing – normalised crosscorrelation – when comparing image with templates. The default value of the decimation is calculated by the system to 3. By experimentation 5 is found to be a good value. Five gives a template which for character for is 62 / 5 = 12 x 8 = 43 / 5.  A template with 96 pixels contains a lot of information.
2. Rematch area is set to 67 – default is 100%. Is speed is needed 67 % will normally work ok. 100% is a safer value.
3. Template Rotation is activated to be able to handle a slight angle on the characters. If there is no angle this might leads to a poorer system performance
4. Template Scaling is activated. Two scales are performed 100% and 120%.
5. Note: With a quad-core CPU there rotation and scaling is processed on the four core and has a low speed penalty
6. The Match description is set to Template Name only
7. The results are sorted by x-position – to be able to sort the characters into a result AllNames
8. Result strings Template names are activated – This means that Allname result is produces and contains Number plate number.

Advanced Setup when using TemplateFinder3 for OCR

3. Setup Constraints

It might be needed to lower the accepted distance between matches. This is by default off. It this case this is set to 10.

OCR Contraints - Accept closer matches than default

4. Setup page

The following is configured on the Setup Page

1. Search Area – conveniant to activate “Use whole picture” – this is slower that a selected region of interest
2. If rotation is enabled “Optimized Rotation” will provide better and more consistent results
   • Note that when rotation is only – + 10 degrees this can also be ticked off – with 360 degrees rotation important to activate
3. The Raw threshold is used in the first decimated search for correlation peaks
   • This value should not be lower than 60 – in this case 100 is a good value
4. The Threshold is used in the second pass – values from 100 – 200 are typical
5. Ignore matches with lower Std ratio is used to get rid of matches with another intensity level
   • This option can be disable to handle intensity variation between template and image
6. Thread count Auto will select a proper thread count based on CPU configuration
   • Setting thread count to 1 – will show how fast TF3 is on a single-core

Setup Page TemplateFinder3

5. Use Allnames result

When properly configured the Allnames results contains the OCR value = 7420.

Tf3.Allnames result contains OCR value

More information “Can Scorpion do OCR?” . Download the sample and read more about TemplateFinder3  in Scorpion Online Help.

Can Scorpion do OCR?

Yes we can !

We have made a demo profile read number plates. It is based on the powerful Scorpion TemplateFinder3 tool. The decoding is done in less 100 ms on a standard pc.

Download the sample or read more about TemplateFinder3  in Scorpion Online Help.

More information in “How to configure TemplateFinder3 to do OCR?”

Cannot save or copy images in Windows 7

Running Scorpion under Windows 7 raises some issues that needs to be handled. People experience that they cannot

• copy images to scorpion folder
• save images
• scorpion profile is not persistence

All of this has to do with the default security settings for Windows 7.  By default the user has only read and execute rights to the program files folder files.  Scorpion normally places images and profiles in these folders.

Fix to get Scorpion run like XP and Vista

The fix is to set Full Control right to the program files\tordivel as folder. You need to have adminstrator rights to do this.

Administrator right to shortcut can be useful.