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1stVision offers industrial SWIR cameras for machine vision, semiconductor inspection, food inspection, electronics inspection, surveillance, scientific imaging, and moisture detection applications. Our short-wave infrared camera portfolio includes area scan and line scan SWIR cameras with GigE, USB3, Camera Link, CoaXPress, and CSI interfaces from leading manufacturers including Allied Vision and Teledyne DALSA / Teledyne Vision Solutions — Teledyne DALSA is part of the Teledyne Vision Solutions group, an umbrella organization formed by Teledyne Technologies to unify its machine vision brands.
SWIR cameras capture wavelengths beyond visible light, enabling imaging through silicon, glass, plastics, haze, smoke, and other materials not visible with standard machine vision cameras. Available technologies include InGaAs SWIR sensors, Sony SenSWIR sensors, cooled SWIR cameras, high-speed SWIR cameras, and compact embedded SWIR camera systems.
Except for individuals already familiar with imaging outside of the human-visible spectrum, SWIR imaging and its benefits may seem difficult to comprehend. The images below show the differences between foreign material inspection with visible light vs foreign inspection material with an SWIR camera.
SWIR imaging systems use specially designed sensors, lighting, and lenses, with different materials than those used for visible light, to create digital image representations from the realm of Short Wave Infrared, from about 0.9 – 1.7 μm. Just as in traditional machine vision, applications may be developed whereby the image may be algorithmically analyzed to automate materials handling, quality control, real-time processing and other tasks.
Representative applications made possible by SWIR imaging:
Consider the following two images. The left image, acquired in a visible imaging system, does not make it easy to distinguish that there are four different materials. But the right image clearly shows the black beans, the “keeper” product in this case, as distinct from the undesired materials. Whether for robotic sorting or quality control documentation, SWIR imaging opens up whole new ranges of applications.
