Imaging Device Architecture
The CVL image acquisition is based on a modular architecture, with separate acquisition modules for each type of image acquisition device. CVL comes with a module for each type of Cognex frame grabber, a module for GigE Vision cameras, and a module for Imaging Devices.
The Imaging Device module provides an open interface that third party manufacturers can use to provide transparent access to their image acquisition equipment. The manufacturer does this by implementing an Imaging Device Adapter. This adapter conforms to the Cognex-defined Imaging Device interface and provides access to the manufacturer’s device using the manufacturer’s SDK and API. The figure below provides an overview of the CVL acquisition system’s modularity.
A single PC can contain any number of Imaging Device Adapters. A CVL application simply uses the normal CVL acquisition interface to query the available devices, instantiate a device, configure it, and acquire images from it.