What is Scorpion VisionX?

The VisionX is a complete software component for adding image processing and camera support to any windows application.

The component contains the following elements:

• Scorpion 2D and 3D Image Processing
• Interface to Web, Network, Area and Line Scan cameras over USB, GigE, CameraLink and Firewire
• Camera Viewer with zoom, measurement, save and overlay graphics
• Python Scripting Engine

More information:

• Datasheet PD-2004-015-b Scorpion VisionX.pdf
• A short introduction how to integrate Scorpion VisionX into your application is located in Scorpion Online Help.
• Scorpion VisionX tutorial press here
• Scorpion VisionX 8 pricelist.

With the release of Scorpion 8 the following is added to VisionX:

• A new low cost entry level for 1D and 2D barcodes decoding
  • list price  starts at 375 euro includes image capture
• OpenCV version starts at 375 euro listprice
  • A complete vision system including image capture

VisionX is a runtime component with a standard SDK purchace requirement.

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 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?”

What is ArrLib?

Arrlib is the Image Processing Library in Scorpion Vision Software.  ArrLib stand for Array Library. The basis of the library was developed by Arne Sommerfelt when he was working for SINTEF. Arne is now the Chief Operating Officer of Tordivel AS.

There are four versions of Arrlib supplied with each Scorpion Vision Software. These are:

• Arrlib – Visual C++ version 8
• Arrlib – Visual C++ version with IPP support
• Arrlib – Intel C compiler
• Arrlib – Intel C compiler with IPP support

The default version of  is Arrlib generated by Visual C++ 8. This version supports all hw platform form – Intel, AMD and other cpus. The Intel C generated version support the latest Intel multicore CPU and is significantly faster the the Visual C++ version on an Intel platform. The IPP version required that the IPP library is added to your Scorpion installation. These IPP library is at the moment speeding image resampling significantly.

To update your Arrlib version – locate the applicable Arrlib version in the Arrlib directory, included as a sub-directory under the scorpion directory, and copy the dll to the scorpion directory.

More about IPP…

What is IPP?

Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives (Intel® IPP) is an extensive library of multicore-ready, highly optimized software functions for digital media and data-processing applications. Intel IPP offers thousands of optimized functions covering frequently-used fundamental algorithms. Intel IPP functions are designed to deliver performance beyond what optimized compilers alone can deliver.

More information

Scorpion Vision Software provides a version of it’s Image processing library Arrlib which uses IPP free of charge.

Does Scorpion Vision do sub-pixel measurement?

The clue about sub-pixel measurement is removing lens distortion. The Calibrator tool is the key for for this.  More information is found in the Scorpion Online Help.

All Scorpion tools work with reference and process image with subpixel accuracy the reference chain contains a Calibrator. This  gives the user the advantage of sub-pixel measurement without any special effort. Sub-pixel measurement is an extremely important feature in 2D and 3D machine vision system. With Scorpion you can increase the accuracy from 10 – 30 times taking advantage of the Calibrator tool.

The image below is a Image from a patented system from Tordivel Solar. The shadowline is located with 1 micrometer accuarcy with a camera pixel resolution of 40 micrometer.

High Precision Line Location

The following rule of thumb can be used to indicate the tolerance of a width measurement : The accuarcy is equal to 1 pixel – the measurement standard deviation is 1/10 pixel or better. This means that with a field of view of 100 x 100 mm and a Sony XCD-700 camera measurements has a accuracy of 0.1 mm and a resolution better than 0.01 mm.

The image below is captured with 4.8 mm wide-angle lens. The grid has the following properties:

• 15 rows and 22 columns
• Dot spacing of 50 mm
• Pixel resolution is 1,01 mm

The following corrections are performed with lens calibration:

• The RMS position deviation is 0,3 mm or pixels
• The maximum deviation is 0,8 mm
• The edge points are moved 58,7 mm

The effect of using the calibrator is that the optical precision is 0,3 mm. Before correction the maximum error 2 * 58 mm = 116 mm. The maximum error is thus reduced with a factor close to 300.

Using the ImageResampler tool the following perfect image can be created:

See also the Calibrated Measurement example.

Where is polygon roi specially useful?

Scorpion’s advanced blob tools – Blob4, PolylineEdgeFaults2 – PLEF2 and PolygonMatch – has polygon rois (regions of interest).

For Blob4 this is very useful in assembly verification for detecting the presence of an object. Simply shape the blob to the shape of the object. In surface defects, applications having the possibility to cover every details of the part is very important. Have in mind that Blob’s roi handle rotation, scaling and perspective.

For PolygonMatch and Plef2 this is useful when you tailor the roi to the shape of the object. Another important issue is that you can select the features to use.

More about dynamic polygon ROIs.

Does Scorpion Support Color Processing?

The following tools works on directly on color images:

• ColorMatcher – classify color based on reference images
• ColorSegmenter – converts a color image based on hsi filter to bw image
• ColorAnalyzer – a matrix of color matcher work on a square area to calculate an area with a specific color
• SurfaceAnalyzer – ColorAnalyzer combined with TextureMatcher
• ImageConverter – converts color images into bw images

All tools can in Scorpion can extract HSI – Hue, Saturation or Intensity plane from a color image and process this as a bw image.

What kind of tool classes are there in Scorpion?

Scorpion has the following classes of tools: Basic, Data, Edge, Reference, Geometry, Advanced, 3D Basic and 3D Advanced.