National Instruments IMAQTM Getting Measurement-Ready Images

© National Instruments Corporation 2-1 IMAQ Vision for Visual Basic User Manual

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Getting Measurement-Ready Images

This chapter describes how to set up an imaging system, acquire and

display an image, analyze the image, and prepare the image for additional

processing.

Set Up Your Imaging System

Before you acquire, analyze, and process images, you must set up an

imaging system. The manner in which you set up the system depends on the

imaging environment and the type of analysis and processing you need to

do. Your imaging system should produce images with high enough quality

so that you can extract the information you need from the images.

Follow the guidelines below to set up an imaging system.

1. Determine the type of equipment you need based on the space

constraints andthe size of the object you need to inspect. For more

information, refer to Chapter 3, System Setup and Calibration, of the

IMAQ Vision Concepts Manual.

a. Make sure the camera sensor is large enough to satisfy the

minimum resolution requirement.

b. Make sure the lens has a depth of field high enough to keep all of

the objects in focus regardless of their distance from the lens.

Also, make sure the lens has a focal length that meets your needs.

c. Make sure the lighting provides enough contrast between the

object under inspection and the background for you to extract the

information you need from the image.

2. Position the camera so that it is parallel to the object under inspection.

If the camera acquires images of the object from an angle, perspective

errors occur. Even though you can compensate for these errors with

software, NI recommends that you use a perpendicular inspection

angle to obtain the fastest and most accurate results.

3. Select an image acquisition device that meets your needs. National

Instruments offers several image acquisition devices, such as analog

Contents

Main Page Important Information Warranty Copyright Trademarks WARNING REGARDING USE OF NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS PRODUCTS Contents About This Manual Chapter 1 Introduction to IMAQ Vision Chapter 2 Getting Measurement-Ready Images Chapter 3 Making Grayscale and Color Measurements Chapter 4 Performing Particle Analysis Chapter 5 Performing Machine Vision Tasks Page Page About This Manual Conventions Related Documentation IMAQ Vision NI Vision Assistant NI Vision Builder for Automated Inspection Other Documentation Introduction to IMAQ Vision About IMAQ Vision Documentation and Examples IMAQ Vision for Visual Basic Organization cwimaq.ocx CWIMAQ Control CWIMAQVision Control CWIMAQViewer Control niocr.ocx NIOCR control cwmv.ocx CWMachineVision control ActiveX Objects Creating IMAQ Vision Applications Chapter 1 Introduction to IMAQ Vision Figure 1-1. General Steps for Designing a Vision Application IMAQ Vision for Visual Basic User Manual 1-6 ni.com Chapter 1 Introduction to IMAQ Vision Figure 1-2. Inspection Steps for Building a Vision Application National Instruments Corporation 1-7 IMAQ Vision for Visual Basic User Manual Getting Measurement-Ready Images Set Up Your Imaging System Calibrate Your Imaging System Create an Image Page Acquire or Read an Image Acquiring an Image One-Shot Acquisition Continuous Acquisition Reading a File Converting an Array to an Image Display an Image Attach Calibration Information Analyze an Image Page Improve an Image Lookup Tables Filters Convolution Filter Nth Order Filter Grayscale Morphology FFT Complex Image Operations Making Grayscale and Color Measurements Define Regions of Interest Defining Regions Interactively Page Page Figure 3-2. Tools Information Defining Regions Programmatically Defining Regions with Masks Measure Grayscale Statistics Measure Color Statistics Figure 3-3. Primary Components of an 32-bit Color Image Figure 3-4. Primary Components of a 64-bit Color Image CWIMAQVision.ColorValueConversion2. Comparing Colors Learning Color Information Specifying the Color Information to Learn Using the Entire Image Using a Region in the Image Using Multiple Regions in the Image Choosing a Color Representation Sensitivity Ignoring Learned Colors Performing Particle Analysis Create a Binary Image Improve the Binary Image Removing Unwanted Particles Separating Touching Particles Improving Particle Shapes Make Particle Measurements Page Page Page Page Page Page Performing Machine Vision Tas ks Locate Objects to Inspect Using Edge Detection to Build a Coordinate Transformation Page Using Pattern Matching to Build a Coordinate Transformation Page Chapter 5 Performing Machine Vision Tasks National Instruments Corporation 5-7 IMAQ Vision for Visual Basic User Manual Choosing a Method to Build the Coordinate Transformation Figure 5-4. Building a Coordinate Transformation Set Search Areas Defining Regions Interactively Defining Regions Programmatically Find Measurement Points Finding Features Using Edge Detection Finding Lines or Circles Finding Edge Points Along One Search Contour Finding Edge Points Along Multiple Search Contours Finding Points Using Pattern Matching Defining and Creating Effective Template Images Symmetry Feature Detail Positional Information Background Information Training the Pattern Matching Algorithm Defining a Search Area Setting Matching Parameters and Tolerances Match Mode Minimum Contrast Rotation Angle Ranges Testing the Search Algorithm on Test Images Using a Ranking Method to Verify Results Finding Points Using Color Pattern Matching Defining and Creating Effective Color Template Images Color Information Symmetry Feature Detail Positional Information Training the Color Pattern Matching Algorithm Defining a Search Area Setting Matching Parameters and Tolerances Color Sensitivity Search Strategy Color Score Weight Minimum Contrast Rotation Angle Ranges Testing the Search Algorithm on Test Images Finding Points Using Color Location Convert Pixel Coordinates to Real-World Coordinates Make Measurements Distance Measurements Analytic Geometry Measurements Instrument Reader Measurements Identify Parts Under Inspection Classifying Samples Reading Characters Reading Barcodes Read 1D Barcodes Read Data Matrix Barcode Read PDF417 Barcode Display Results Page Page Calibrating Images Perspective and Nonlinear Distortion Calibration Defining a Calibration Template Defining a Reference Coordinate System Page Learning Calibration Information Specifying Scaling Factors Choosing a Region of Interest Choosing a Learning Algorithm Using the Learning Score Learning the Error Map Learning the Correction Table Setting the Scaling Mode Calibration Invalidation Simple Calibration Save Calibration Information Attach Calibration Information Page A Technical Support and Professional Services Glossary Numbers A B Page C D E F G H I Page J K L Page M N O P Q R S T Page Index Numerics A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T U V W Z