P I O N E E R S I N I M A G E A C Q U I S I T I O N

Software forPicPort® grabbersand PentiCam• tools and drivers for

extended grabber and

camera control

• powerful C/C++ libraries for

real-time image processing

• easy-to-use ActiveX tools

for machine vision

• configurable software for

specific applications

Products

Leutron Vision provides a powerful toolkit for grabber and camera control. The toolkit is common

for all the PicPort® frame grabbers and for the PentiCam system.

We also support other well-known third party vendors of image processing software by providing

comprehensive hardware drivers to our products.

LV-SDS, the primary software interface to PicPort®

frame grabbers. In addition to the device drivers andlow level libraries to control the hardware, LV-SDS alsocontains higher level tools to assist in the applicationdevelopment.HALCON, a unique set of software tools for buildinghigh performance flexible vision systems. Its hugeimage-processing library may be accessed from C,C++, COM (Visual Basic) or from an integrated CAVE(Computer Aided Vision Engineering) tool.ActivVisionTools, a Rapid Application Development(RAD) tool based on the HALCON library. It offers

the performance and robustness of the HALCON’s fea-tures within straightforward and effective visual pro-gramming environment.VisionBlox™, a feature full set of OCX based compo-nents designed for developing machine vision applica-tions quickly in a visual programming environment(e.g. Visual Basic). It can save up to 70% of applicationdevelopment time.NeuroCheck®, an interactive general purpose imageprocessing system for industrial quality control. It offerspowerful vision tools within an intuitive developmentinterface, without the need for specialist programming.

LV-SDS: Leutron VisionSoftware Development Suite

This easy to use software development environmentallows users to focus on their applications withoutdetailed knowledge of the hardware. The LV-SDS offersspecial tools and libraries for each application.Machine VisionDaisy SDK – object oriented C++ library providingan essential interface between hardware and the userapplication.DRAL – Daisy Real-time Application Library allows

the user to setup complex real-time image sequencingand processing applications on the host PC.Image AcquisitionOrchid library – high level library for developing inter-active applications with a few lines of code in visualtools such as MS Visual Basic, Borland Delphi, BorlandC++ Builder, etc.TWAIN Driver – provides an easy interface to thirdparty image processing or desktop publishing softwarepackages.Video for Windows Driver for use primarily in multime-dia applications.Other multimedia drivers, i.e. MCI, are available onrequest.Additional ToolsInteractive Camera Editor – simple setup of standardand nonstandard cameras.Sample Applications – Several ready-to-use applica-tions are provided for quick installation. All the sam-ples come with full source code.

Daisy Library

The Daisy library permits full utilization of the PicPort®

frame grabbers' functionality whilst the Orchid libraryand Video for Windows driver simplify the program-ming, but use only basic frame grabber functions.Daisy is a C++ object oriented library, supplied as a setof DLLs in a 32-bit version for Windows NT4/2000 andfor Windows 95/98/Me. The primary Daisy DLL isavailable in versions for MS Visual C++ and for BorlandC++. Moreover, the Daisy library is also available inversion for Linux systems.Actual hardware is represented by Daisy classes. Themost important of these being LvGrabberNode andLvCameraNode. The developer typically createsinstances of these classes in the application for eachgrabber and camera in the system then logically con-nects cameras to grabbers and activates them forselected targets.

A brief list and description of the main Daisy functionswith the PicPort® is as follows.Color image adjustmentThe image brightness, contrast, hue and saturationcan be adjusted in real time by the PicPort®.

Input LUTInput Look Up Table allowing various adjustments ina monochrome image (e.g. real-time binarization).Scale and mirror modesThe PicPort® frame grabbers provide interpolative orpixel skipping downscaling and horizontal/vertical mir-roring.Lock MaskFor real time full color overlay with a Windows DeviceIndependent Bitmap (DIB).Color formatA subset of Windows supported color formats (8-bit,15-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit).DIB/array modeIn the DIB mode the live image in the CPU memorycan be directly accessed by Windows API functions,i.e. SetDIBitsToDevice(), StretchDIBits(), etc. In the arraymode the image data is accessible in form of common2D array.Source ROI (Region Of Interest)Selects a rectangle from the input.

Target ROIRepresents a channel on PicPort® (High PerformanceScaler HPS or Binary Ratio Scaler BRS) with its scaling,mirroring and locking capabilities.Output to VGA/CPU memoryThe target ROI can be mapped either to the VGAmemory or to the sys-tem memory or both ifrequired.Camera/grabbersynchronizationThe card can behave asslave or master, grab-bing synchronously orin an asynchronous mode(with triggering).Opto-couplersThe opto-couplers can be read,set or cleared in order to controlor communicate with otherexternal devices.Connector managementThe user application can freely switch between allavailable connectors of the boards.Image grabActivates/deactivates desired camera node, puts it tothe live/freeze mode.Application synchronizationIn 32-bit environment, Daisy is able to use the Win32synchronization objects to signal various events, likestart of odd/even field, vertical sync, status change ingeneral port i/o, interrupts generated by PicPort'sonboard real time sequencer; this enables the user tofully utilize the advantages of Windows multithreadingapplication architecture.

Other functionsA more comprehensive list of features can be found onour web site www.leutron.com.

DRAL

All boards utilize an onboard controller to guaranteeperformance of real time critical tasks independentof host processor or operating system. The controllerfunctions are accessed using the Daisy Real TimeApplication Libraries (DRALs) to handle specific tasks,not covered with the standard Daisy programming(such as complex image sequence acquisitions withcoupled I/O handling of an external device.Image Sequencer DRALThe Image Sequencer DRAL was developed to allowacquisition of image sequences into the selected target

buffer. Applications can acquire series of images fromeither one or more cameras (from single or multiplesynchronized framegrabbers) simultaneous-ly or consecutively.Single or continuousframe acquisition modesmay be selected whilethe number of images islimited only by the CPUmemory size. All targetbuffers, image resolu-tions, color formats,scale and DIB modesare supported.The Image Sequencer DRAL utilizes PicPort onboardopto-isolated inputs and outputs allowing synchroniza-tion with external devices. Thus frame or sequenceacquisition may be triggered from «outside» and, onthe other hand, devices like a flash may be controlledfrom the application.Image Preprocessing DRALThe Image Preprocessing DRAL is a support modulethat allows the application to perform some simplemanipulations on the acquired images. Its functionalityincludes noise reduction, Bayer array decoder, whitebalancing, etc. Processing may be performed only onselected image areas and the resulting output may besent to a specific window on user's desktop.DRALs are continuously being developed – please visitour website for the latest news.

Orchid Library

Orchid is a library implementing a higher level inter-face between the Daisy library and the application. Itcovers the most used functionality provided by Daisy,

with stress put on the simplicity of usage. Simple, butfunctional application using PicPort® may not needmore than a few lines of code (typically it is enough toset the grabber, camera and connector names plus thedisplay window handle and then the Live method canalready be called to display live image on screen).

Orchid covers both the stan-dard PicPort® acquisition modeand the real-time modes(based on DRAL modules).Thus it can be used not onlyfor development of interactiveuser programs, but also formachine vision applications.Besides providing the Daisyfunctionality with stronglysimplified interface, Orchidadds some more features:

• dialogs enabling to set various parameters comfort-ably

• displays live image in a supplied window, either inhardware or in software live mode

• saves images to BMP and JPEG files• creates AVI files and saves images to it (without sound)• copies images to Clipboard• saves configuration to Windows registry or to

INI filesOrchid is language independent and is available asa DLL and as an ActiveX control. It can be used incommon visual tools as MS Visual Basic, BorlandDelphi and C++ Builder, as well as in traditional MSVisual C++ and Borland C++. Namely the ActiveX ver-sion of Orchid enables rapid application development,just by placing the control in the application form andsetting its properties and calling its methods.

Camera Editor

The Camera Editor contains a database of the proper-ties of many popular cameras. In addition, new cam-eras can be added by merely copying a similar camera

and modifying the values (within the hardware con-straints of the frame grabber) and saving the modifiedcamera file for future use.The Camera Editor retains following information aboutthe cameras:Basic information: video type (mono, RGB, compositeYC, separate YC), color coding (PAL, NTSC), aspectratio, pixel aperture ratio.Timing parameters: scanning mode (interlaced, non-interlaced, parallel), number of frames per second,fields per frame, lines per frame, line length, horizon-tal/vertical blank start/end, h/v sync width, h/v delaybetween camera and grabber.Signal definition: termination, upper/lower level,polarity, input or output and single-ended or differen-tial transmission for image and synchronizing signals(analog or digital video, video + composite sync,H/V/C sync, pixel clock, auxiliary signal).Asynchronous reset settings: shutter speed (min,max, default, fixed, programmable), trigger delay, trig-ger type (one or two pulses on one or two pins, pinnumbers, polarity), video readout timing, trigger rela-tion to camera H/V sync.Signal interface: camera signal (video, sync, trigger)interface descriptions for individual PicPort® framegrabbers.Other options: various camera specific adjustments.

Twain Driver

Twain defines a standard software protocol and appli-cation programming interface (API) for communica-tion between software applications and image acquisi-tion devices. The Daisy library supports the Twaininterface by providing a general purpose driver thatcan be used to acquire images from any applicationsupporting Twain (including Microsoft Office,CorelDRAW family and many other ones).

Video for Windows Driver

The Leutron Video for Windows driver provides imagecapture functionality and can be used alone or in con-junction with other Video for Windows components,i.e. audio/video compressors and audio capture devicesto manipulate complete multimedia streams. It is avail-able for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 only.

MCI Driver (available on request)

The Windows Media Control Interface (MCI) providesan interface for controlling multimedia devices.Functionality of Leutron MCI driver is accessed bymeans of standard Windows MCI calls, typically bysending a command string by the mciSendString()function.

PicPort® Demo Program

PicPort® Demo program is supplied to guide thenovice PicPort®/LV-SDS users through the completefunctionality range of the products. It introduces most

of the API features via an intuitive user interface andtogether with an extensive set of sample programs, itenables the user or developer to start working quickly.

HALCON

HALCON Principles

HALCON is a unique machine vision tool enablingdevelopers to build high performance flexible systems.

It is based on a huge image processing library withmore than 950 operators for low, medium, and highlevel image processing - including object analysis, OCR& OCV, bar code reading, shape based pattern match-ing or color processing. Many of the operators workwith sub-pixel accuracy (up to 1/50 pixel) and all ofthem are optimized for the highest performance. TheHALCON is suitable for many kinds of applicationsfrom industrial inspection to remote sensing or med-ical image analysis. Image sequence processing (e.g.for surveillance tasks) is also available.HALCON can be used in two modes. In contrast toStandard HALCON, optimized for single-processorcomputers, the Parallel HALCON actively exploits thepower of multiprocessor computers. If more than oneprocessor is detected, it automatically parallelizes HAL-CON operators without the need of rewriting a singleline of code.With HALCON, developers are not restricted to oneparticular programming language. HALCON librarymay be accessed from C, C++ or ActiveX (e.g. withVisual Basic).In addition, users can take advantage of HDevelop,a CAVE (Computer Aided Vision Engineering) tool forrapid prototyping. This integrated part of HALCONoffers a highly interactive programming environmentto easily design image analysis programs quickly, withcode export to C++ or Visual Basic. HDevelop providesan extensive debugging support: stepping, break-points, variable watch, changing parameters duringruntime. One can interactively select the operators andtheir parameters and immediately see the results – in

both, numericand pictorialforms.HALCON isavailableunder variousoperating sys-tems includingWindowsNT4/2000 andLinux.

HALCON Functions Overview

Image AcquisitionHALCON interfaces to the complete family of PicPort®

frame grabbers from Leutron Vision as well as to thePentiCam system.Accepted input image file formats are Tiff, BMP, GIF,JPEG, PNM, PCX, XWD, Sun-Raster, binary.

FilteringImage enhancement (contrast enhancement, illumina-tion correction, scaling, histogram adaption, interlaceerror correction), smoothing filters, edge detectionand line/point extraction (some with sub-pixel accura-cy), texture (Law's filters, deviation, entropy), affinetransformations with different interpolation methods,various arithmetic and logical bit operations, colortransformations, Fourier convolutions, Hough transfor-mation (lines, circles), image sequence analysis (back-ground estimation, optical flow), and other miscella-neous convolutions.Pattern MatchingGray value matching with arbitrary size, shape androtation. Best match, all matches, multi grid match.Shape based pattern matching with objects placed inany orientation and any rotation. Robust againstocclusion, clutter and arbitrary illumination changes.SegmentationThreshold (range, local, automatic, color, hysteresis),n-dimensional classification, region growing (gradient,average value, color, texture), edges (1st and 2ndderivatives), miscellaneous.Feature ExtractionGray values (e.g. min/max, average, deviation, his-togram, entropy, moments), regions (area, center,compactness, number of holes, eccentricity, etc.),

region processing (connected components, skeleton,junctions, set operations, filling holes, region genera-tion), region matching, contour/polygons/line process-ing.MorphologySet of gray value or binary based morphological oper-ators.ClassificationClustering with hyper cubes for non-normal distrib-uted data sets.OCR, OCV, Bar CodesCharacter based recognition, specialized segmenta-tion, clustering of characters, rotation elimination,trainable fonts, selectable features. Reading multiple1D or 2D bar codes.ToolsKalman filters (prediction of parameters or objects inan image sequence), camera calibration, geometry(distance and angle of lines, segments, points, regions,affine transformations), combining multiple imagesshape from shading, photogrammetric stereo.Custom operatorsUser-specific operators may be easily integrated intothe HALCON environment.

Activ VisionTools Principles

ActivVisionTools enable the user to develop powerfulmachine vision applications quickly and comfortablywithout writing a single line of code. They are basedon the well-established HALCON library (alsodescribed in this brochure) and thus inherit its speed,robustness, and accuracy. However, the tools hide thecomplexity of image processing from the user; instead,they present solutions for standard tasks such as mea-

suring objects, reading 1D and 2D bar codes, blobanalysis, or OCR/OCV.

ActivVisionTools are integrated into the frame-work of Microsoft VisualBasic. Depending on

the task, the user selects the appropriatetools and places them via drag & droponto the Microsoft VisualBasic form. Thecommunication between the tools is setup and configured automatically by thetools themselves. Connecting toa frame grabber involves just

selecting the grabber andappropriate grabbing mode,

no programming is needed.

To speed up image processing, the user can assignregions of interest (ROIs) to the tools. One or moreROIs with different shapes (rectangle, polygon, circle,ellipse, doughnut, line, arc) are positioned with themouse in the image. Moreover, the ROIs may be auto-matically aligned to moving parts. All the tools may bequickly adapted to the relevant machine vision task viafully interactive graphical user interfaces.The application may be executed already in designmode. Thus, the user can immediately check if thechosen tool parameters lead to the desired result. Theresults (e.g. extracted edges) are overlaid on the liveimage. All results can be sent to various output chan-nels, e.g., written to a file or transmitted via a serialinterfe.ActivVisionTools also offer flexibility and extensibility.Besides continuously growing ActivVisionTools family,the users themselves can easily integrate their own

VisualBasic/ActiveX components, or use theHALCON library to develop and inte-

grate image processing componentsfor special tasks.

ActivVisionTools

ActivVisionTools Functions Overview

The following text describes briefly the individualmembers of continuously growing family of theActivVisionTools.

ActivViewAn integral part of every ActivVisionTools application.ActivView allows to select the frame grabber and spec-ify the desired mode (e.g. continuous, triggered, pro-gressive scan). All members of Leutron Vision familyof PicPort® frame grabbers as well as the PentiCam sys-tem are supported.Besides displaying the image and sending it to theother tools, ActivView also displays their results over-laid on the image, allowing even closer inspection andzooming.Finally, ActivView provides management of regionsof interest (ROIs) for the other tools.ActivMeasureEnables to measure objects with sub-pixel accuracy inreal-time. The tool may be adapted quickly, e.g., bychoosing between different edge types. After beingassigned one or more ROIs in form of lines or arcs,ActivMeasure extracts different types of edges withsub-pixel accuracy and measures the distancesbetween the edges or edge groups.ActivBarcodeExtracts and decodes various common bar codes.Multiple bar codes per ROI can appear in any positionand orientation. They are extracted robustly even fromcomplex backgrounds or in case of varying illumina-tion.ActivDataMatrixA relative of ActivBarcode, responsible for extractionand decoding of 2D bar codes (DataMatrix).

ActivColorPerforms classification of the image pixels according totheir color.ActivBlobFinderRobust blob extraction using absolute or dynamicthresholding.ActivFeatureCalcCalculation of more than 50 shape and gray value fea-tures (histogram, moments, region area, center, eccen-tricity, etc.).ActivOCR, ActivOCVRobust recognition and verification even of difficultfonts. Any position, any orientation, varying illumina-tion conditions.ActivGeoCalibGeometric camera calibration for measurements in3D world coordinates.

VisionBlox™

VisionBlox™ Principles

VisionBlox™ is a fast and cost-effective way for end-users to build powerful and custom machine visionapplications and comprises of a set of software toolsbuilt upon the OCX technology.

VisionBlox™ Functions Overview

VisionBlox™ is a set of software tools that are addedonto the toolbar of Microsoft's Visual Basic or VisualC++ rapid application development environments.Image CaptureVisionBlox™ can capture images from the completerange of PicPort® image acquisition boards.

Regions of InterestAll processing and analysis is performed within one ormultiple ROIs. The ROIs can be a single point or aslarge as the whole image with its position and sizespecified graphically or through code. ROIs can be rec-tangular, square, oval, circular, doughnut, or squasheddoughnut shapes and can be interactively moved,rotated, resized, or mutated. ROIs can be automatical-ly placed relative to other object locations on newlyacquired images.Polar Unwrap ToolUsed to convert circular image information into a lin-ear format. Image HandlingImage handling is performed by means of EditableImage control providing an area for image display andimage processing. The control can display storedbitmap or PCX images as well as grabbed or live cam-era images.Image ProcessingImage Arithmetic (add, subtract, multiply, and divide

image/value), Boolean Operations (AND, OR, equiva-lence), Morphology (four predefined gray scale orbinary operations with user defined structuring ele-ments: dilate, erode, open, close), Enhancement Filters(band restore, edge enhance, Gaussian, Sobel angle,Laplacian, max, min, negate, Sobel magnitude, inversetranspose).

Image AnalysisImage Analysis area is covered by several sets of func-tions: Feature find (search), Blob, Caliper, edge, Read(OCV), Template:, Color meter, Color filter, Point.

CameraMonochrome or color, analog or digital, area scan orline scan cameras are supported. The camera relatedfunctions include: Calibration, Device coordinates,Logical coordinates, Physical coordinates, Object coor-dinates.

Light MeterPixel value distribution information: maximum, mini-mum, mean, median, total, standard deviation.I/OSupports input and output functions via DLLexchange.MotionControls for user interface, different stage types, anddifferent drive methods. Graphical User Interface con-trol for x, y, z, roll, pitch, and yaw includes movementstatus, jog increments, current position, and x, y, φalignment algorithms. Multi-Axis Stage control isintended for moving up to six independent axes.Optimized Control family of motion cards via RS232or RS485 connection. It can perform half-step, micro-step, or servo motion.

Custom toolsVisionBlox™ supplies a Vision Tool Integration Kitenabling to add user's custom tools to VisionBlox™ ina matter of minutes. Please contact Leutron Vision forinformation about third party tools currently available.

NeuroCheck®

NeuroCheck® Principles

NeuroCheck® is a general-purpose image processingsystem for industrial quality control. UsingNeuroCheck®, you can check completeness of assem-bly groups, surface quality and measurement of workpieces, correctness of printed labels and precise posi-tioning. It encompasses a 1000+ set of functions fromdifferent areas, including e.g. sophisticated patternmatching, OCR with neural networks based training,bar code & data matrix code reading, sub-pixel accu-racy gauging, color matching or specialized measur-ing.

The most notable advantage of NeuroCheck® is itsdeveloper environment. Application development withNeuroCheck® does not involve any programming.Instead it offers rapid visual point & click developmentwhere the user interactively selects and configures rou-tines for the control flow and immediately checks theresults. Using extensive wizards, the user can easilydesign screen layouts, configure automatic logging(including images) and signal error states with conse-quential actions, including the control of externaldevices.Thanks to integration of development and runtimesystem, the application may be reconfigured on the fly(even directly during automatic inspection). Dataexchange via OLE and standard file formats allowsremote control of NeuroCheck® from database andspreadsheet programs for easy result evaluation anddocumentation.A flexible password system allows an arbitrary numberof user levels with individual access rights.With NeuroCheck®, digital image processing hasbecome a versatile, user-friendly, and cost-effectiveinstrument of quality control, with the ability to beseamlessly integrated into modern quality manage-ment concepts (ISO 9000).

NeuroCheck® Functions Overview

Image AcquisitionNeuroCheck® interfaces to the complete family ofPicPort® frame grabbers' family from Leutron Vision aswell as to the PentiCam system.Position AdjustmentComputing current position of reference objects in theimage (x and y offset, rotation angle, pivot point).Adjusting positions of search regions according to thereference objects.Image PreprocessingRotating image, copying image, enhancing image,shading corrections, look-up tables, combining images(addition, average, subtraction, max/min), filteringimage (appr. 50 filters with editable kernels), unrollingROIs (transforming arbitrary shaped image into rectan-gular one), smoothing ROIs (special two-stage filteringfor improved edge detection), filling objects or back-ground with uniform gray.Image AnalysisDefining ROIs (rectangular, polygonal, circular), deter-mining threshold (for optimal segmentation), creatingROIs by thresholding (i.e. blob & edge extraction withsub-pixel precision), copying ROIs, combining ROIs,their counting, sorting or classifying, validating and fil-tering, re-sampling.Feature ComputingComputing many kinds of object features like center ofgravity, dimensions, H/W ratio, perimeter, area, graylevels, contrast, gradient, curvature, and many more.OCR, OCV, Bar CodesSophisticated OCR & OCV algorithms for recognitionof arbitrarily shaped character sequences. Trainingof arbitrary fonts. Reading all standard 1D or 2D barcodes, nonstandard codes, contrast levels below 10%.Print quality inspection.Pattern MatchingSearches objects based on similarity using correlation.Templates can be created interactively, optimized tothe current patterns, and accelerated using pyramidalalgorithms with adjustable step size. Searching forarbitrarily rotated patterns is suported.GaugingColor AnalysisColor matching, adaptive color space transformationfor distinguishing arbitrary colors.ToolsDelay execution, reading digital input, setting digitaloutput, pixel calibration (conversion to metric units).Custom OperatorsCustom built algorithms can be easily integrated intothe NeuroCheck® system.

Customer's Support

The «Download» and «Support» areas on the Leutronweb server (www.leutron.com) provide comprehen-sive documentation, including user manuals with thelibrary references, for all Leutron's software products.A compact set of demo programs, all with their sourcecodes, should briefly introduce the software capabili-ties and help the developer to quickly start building hisapplication by using the framework (or just fragments)of one of the sample applications.The latest camera definition files for LV-SDS Daisy,patches and other useful information are also availableat www.leutron.com.

Ordering Information

Ordering number Product descritpion

LV-SDS 16028 Leutron Vision Software Development Suite: Daisy, Camera Editor, Orchid,Twain driver, Video for Windows driver, further multimdia drivers on request,documentation and sample programs including the source code

HALCON n/a HALCON software with interface to Leutron's PicPort® frame grabbers,available from 3rd party vendor (contact Leutron Vision for details)

ActivVisionTools n/a ActivVisionTools software with interface to Leutron's PicPort® frame grabbers,available from 3rd party vendor (contact Leutron Vision for details)

VisionBlox™ n/a VisionBlox™ Full Developers Suite, PicPort® OCX for VisionBlox™,available from 3rd party vendor (contact Leutron Vision for details)

NeuroCheck® n/a NeuroCheck® software with interface to Leutron's PicPort® frame grabbers,available from 3rd party vendor (contact Leutron Vision for details)

International headquarters (Switzerland)Leutron Vision AGIndustriestrasse 57, CH-8152 Glattbrugg, Switzerlandphone: ++41 1 809 88 22, fax: ++41 1 809 88 29sales@leutron.com, www.leutron.com

GermanyLeutron Vision GmbHMacairestrasse 3, D-78467 Konstanz, Germanyphone: ++49 7531 59 42 0, fax: ++49 7531 59 42 99germany@leutron.com, www.leutron-vision.de

Czech RepublicLeutron Vision s.r.o.Rokycanska 27, CZ-31201 Plzen, Czech Republicphone: ++420 377 260 342, fax: ++420 377 260 944czech@leutron.com

North AmericaLeutrek Vision Inc.25 Mall Road, Suite 300, Burlington, MA 01803, USAphone: ++1 781 238 02 13, fax: ++1 781 270 93 18sales@leutrek.com, www.leutrek.com

Contact Information