Image Format Control

The parameters of this group describe how to influence and determine the image size and format. It also provides the necessary information to acquire and to display the image data. It assumes that the device has a source of data that generates a single rectangular image. This image can be entirely or partially streamed out of the device using one or many Region of interest (ROI).

Image is taken from SFNC 2.4 p. 109

The sensor provides Sensor Width pixels.

The parameters ReverseX can be used to flip the image along the X-axis. The flipping is done before the Region of interest is applied.

Within the shrunk image the user can set a Region of interest using the parameters OffsetX, Width, and Height. The resulting image has Width time Height pixels. OffsetX refers to the upper left corner of the image which has the coordinate (0, 0).

The parameters Region Selector and Region Mode can be used to select and control each Region individually. All measures are given in pixel. As a result, the values should not change if the Pixel Format changes. For monochrome cameras, each pixel corresponds to a single gray value.

For color cameras in RGB mode each pixel corresponds to one RGB triplet.

The parameter Height describes the height of the image in lines.

Sensor Width

Name

SensorWidth

Standard

Description

Effective width of the sensor in pixels.

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read only

Adjustable

while grabbing

-

Value range

Depends on the built-in sensor.

Default value

1

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

-

Sensor Height

Name

SensorHeight

Standard

Description

Effective height of the sensor in pixels.

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read only

Adjustable

while grabbing

-

Value range

1

Default value

1

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

-

Sensor Color Filter

Name

SensorColorType

Custom

Description

Specifies the sensor color filter.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read only

Adjustable

while grabbing

-

Value range

See enum entry table below.

Default value

-

Availability

-

Notes

Only the display name is changed to sensor color filter for backward compatibility.

Error behavior

-

Sensor Color Filter Enum Entries:

Name

Description

White

White

RGBW

Red, Green, Blue and White

RGBWIr

Red, Green, Blue, White and Infrared

RGBIr

Red, Green, Blue and Infrared

Width Max

Name

WidthMax

Standard

Description

Maximum width of the image (in pixels). The dimension is calculated after horizontal binning, decimation or any other function changing the horizontal dimensions of the image.

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read only

Adjustable

while grabbing

-

Value range

>0

Default value

SensorWidth

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

-

Height Max

Name

HeightMax

Standard

Description

Maximum height of the image (in pixels). This dimension is calculated after vertical binning, decimation or any other function changing the vertical dimensions of the image.

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read only

Adjustable

while grabbing

-

Value range

>0

Default value

-

Availability

ALL

Notes

The maximum height depends on your PC and Frame grabber configuration.

Error behavior

-

Region Selector

Name

RegionSelector

Standard

Description

Selects the Region of interest to control.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

-

Value range

See enum entry table below.

Default value

-

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

-

Region Selector Enum Entries:

Name

Description

Region1

Selected feature will control the region 1

Region2

Selected feature will control the region 2. For ax_dsxge only.

Region Mode

Name

RegionMode[RegionSelector]

Standard

Description

Controls whether the selected Region of interest is active and streaming.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

See enum entry table below.

Default value

-

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Region Mode Enum Entries:

Name

Description

Off

Disable usage of the Region. For ax_dsxge only

On

Enable usage of the Region.

Width

Name

Width[RegionSelector]

Standard

Description

Width of the Image provided by the device (in pixels).

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

[128 , Width Max]

Default value

WidthMax

Availability

ALL

Notes

The width value must be a multiple of eight for RGB.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Height

Name

Height[RegionSelector]

Standard

Description

Height of the Image provided by the device (in pixels).

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

[16 , Height Max]

Default value

1024

Availability

ALL

Notes

This parameter influences the value range of AcquisitionFrameRate. Please read the AcquisitionFrameRate feature documentation for further details.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Offset X

Name

OffsetX[RegionSelector]

Standard

Description

Horizontal offset from the origin to the region of interest (in pixels).

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

≥0

Default value

0

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Sensor Region Offset X

Name

SensorRegionOffsetX[RegionSelector]

Custom

Description

Horizontal offset from the origin to the region of interest in sensor coordinates (pixels).

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read only

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

≥0

Default value

0

Availability

ALL

Notes

The display name is just Sensor Offset X.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Sensor Region Width

Name

SensorRegionWidth[RegionSelector]

Custom

Description

Width of the selected region of interest in sensor coordinates (in pixels).

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read only

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

≥0

Default value

0

Availability

ALL

Notes

The display name is just Sensor Width. The feature resides below the Region Selector. There is a SensorWidth feature defining the sensor’s full width which resides in the top level of the image format control category.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Binning Horizontal

Name

BinningHorizontal

Standard

Description

Number of horizontal photo-sensitive cells to combine. This increases the intensity (or signal-to-noise ratio) of the pixels and reduces the horizontal resolution (width) of the image.

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

Variant

Value Range

ax_X

1,2,4,8,16

g8_X

1,2,4,8,16

Default value

1 – Indicates that no horizontal binning is performed by the camera.

Availability

ALL

Notes

If you change this parameter, the Region OffsetX and Width is scaled according to the binning value.
Please check these parameters after adapting Binning Horizontal.

When Width is changed, the maximum BinningHorizontal value may be reduced and limited to that value. This is done to ensure that Width value doesn’t go below the minimum width value.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Decimation Horizontal Float

Name

DecimationHorizontalFloat

Custom

Description

This is the same feature as DecimationHorizontal as defined in the SFNC. However, it supports float values for decimation.

Horizontal sub-sampling of the image. This reduces the horizontal resolution (width) of the image by the specified horizontal decimation factor.

Interface

Float

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

[0.5 , 3.999]

Default value

1.0

Availability

ALL

Notes

A value of 1 indicates that the camera performs no horizontal decimation.

If you change this parameter, the Region OffsetX and Width are scaled according to the decimation value. Please check these parameters after adapting Decimation Horizontal.

When Width is changed, the maximum DecimationHorizontalFloat value may be reduced and limited to that value. This is done to ensure that Width value doesn’t go below the minimum width value.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Reverse X

Name

ReverseX

Standard

Description

Flip the image sent by the device horizontally.

Interface

Boolean

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

True  â€“ Horizontally flipped image

False – Normal Image

Default value

False

Availability

ALL

Notes

This feature is effective only if Test Pattern is set to Off.

Error behavior

-

Pixel Format

Name

PixelFormat

Standard

Description

Format of the pixels provided by the device. It represents all the information provided by PixelSize, PixelColorFilter combined in a single feature.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

See enum entry table below.

Default value

Variant

Value

Color Camera

RGB8

Mono Camera

Mono8

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Pixel Format Enum Entries:

Name

Availability

Description

Mono8

ALL

Mono10

ALL

Mono12

ALL

RGB8

ALL

RGB10

ALL

RGB12

ALL

RGB10p32

-

32-bits per pixel RGB format. The bit depth is 10-bits. Please check the PFNC (Pixel Format Naming Convention) for more details – Not available for g8_dxge packages!

BGR8

X_DXGE

24 bits per pixel BGR linear memory

RGBa8

g8_X

p6_nxge

32 bits per pixel RGBa linear memory. Component ‘a’ contains Infrared (Ir) or White(W).

RGBa10

g8_X

p6_nxge

RGBa at 10bit unpacked. Component ‘a’ contains Infrared (Ir) or White(W).

RGBa12

g8_X

p6_nxge

RGBa at 12bit unpacked. Component ‘a’ contains Infrared (Ir) or White(W).

Pixel Color Filter

Name

PixelColorFilter

Standard

Description

Selects the type of color filter that is applied to an image.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

See enum entry table below.

Default value

Variant

Value

ax_X

RGB

g8_X

RGBIr

p6_nxge

RGBIr

p16_CXP

RGBIr

ALL

Availability

ALL

Notes

For mono cameras the pixel color filter will be White only.

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Pixel Color Filter Enum Entries:

Name

Availability

Description

RGB

ALL

Three color planes RGB at the sensor is selected.

RGBIr

p16_CXPp6_nxgeg8_X

Four color planes RGB and Infrared at the sensor is selected. Infrared is transmitted as component ‘a’ in the pixel format RGBa8, RGBa10 and RGBa12.

RGBW

p16_CXPp6_nxge

Four color planes RGB and White at the sensor is selected. White is transmitted as component ‘a’ in the pixel format RGBa8, RGBa10 and RGBa12.

White

g8_X

Only White plane at the sensor is selected

Infoblock Mode

Name

InfoBlockMode

Standard

Description

The info block can be enabled for the first line, for each line or for first and each line.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

Enum entries table below.

Default value

Infoblock off

Availability

ALL

Notes

So far not all entries are working. There may be even differences between variants of allPIXAevo.

Error behavior

none

Info block Mode Entries:

Name

Description

Off

No info block is displayed in the image.

Firstline

First line Info block which is in line 0 of each transmitted image is displayed.

Eachline

In each line from line 0 of each transmitted image the Each line info block is displayed.

FirstandEachLine

First and each line info block are displayed in each image.

In case both FirstlineandEach line info block are active, Eachline info block is always displayed from line 1 in every transmitted image!

First line info block format

Pixel

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Line 0

MARKER

SERIAL
NUMBER

MARKER

IMAGE
COUNT

EXPOSURE TIME

MARKER

LINE TIME

ENCODER
CLOCKS

ERROR
CODE

TIME STAMP

MARKER

Information

Channel Content1

Description

MARKER

DIVERSE

Markers are used to mark the info block with red pixels.

Color

Red

Green

Blue

Value

255@8bit

0@8bit

0@8bit

SERIAL NUMBER

SAME

These pixels encode the serial number of the camera.

Byte3

Byte 2

Byte 1

Byte0

Px1

Px2

Px3

Px4

SN 1ST PART

SN 2ND PART

IMAGE COUNT

SAME

These pixels encode the image count of the camera.

Byte 1

Byte0

Px6

Px7

IMAGE COUNT

EXPOSURE TIME

SAME

This is the current Exposure Time in camera internal clock cycles.

Byte 1

Byte0

Px8

Px9

EXPOSURE TIME CLOCKS

To decode the exposure time, use the following formula:

Camera Variant

ax_X

50

g8_X

80

LINE TIME

SAME

This is the current line time in camera internal clock cycles.

Byte2

Byte1

Byte0

Px11

Px12

Px13

LINE TIME CLOCKS

Package 2.1.2 and later:

Camera Variant

ALL

100

ENCODER CLOCKS

SAME

This is a 32-bit counter starting at power on with 0.
These counts either the line trigger (LineStart) or Encoder pulses depending on the selected mode.

Byte3

Byte 2

Byte 1

Byte0

Px14

Px15

Px16

Px17

ENCODER CLOCKS

When setting EncoderSourceA to Off the encoder clock counter will be reset.

ERROR CODE

UNUSED

CURRENTLY UNUSED PRESET WITH ZERO

TIMESTAMP

SAME

Timestamp starts counting from boot.

Byte2

Byte1

Byte0

Px19

Px20

Px21

SECONDS

1MS= Milliseconds

To achieve the milliseconds part of the timestamp the

Content of Px21 must be multiplied by four.

1 SAME indicates that all color channels contain the same value. It is sufficient to evaluate a single color component. DIVERSE indicates different values for individual color channels which should be taken into account when composing the information.

Each Line info block format

Pixel

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

RED

MARKER

ERROR CODE

SPEED2HIGH

ENCODER CLOCKS

NEXT LINE POSITION

TIME STAMP

UNSUPPORTED

UNSUPPORTED

LINE STATUS/SCAN-DIR

MARKER

LINE TIME

GREEN

CONTINUOUS LINE COUNT

LINE COUNT

BLUE

Information

Channel Content1

Description

CONTINUOUS LINE COUNT

DIVERSE

This is the continuous line count across image boundaries.

-

Byte1

Byte0

Px0Red

Px0Green

Px0Blue

CONT LINE COUNT

ERROR CODE

DIVERSE

This is an error code. Currently not used!

Byte0

-

-

Px1Red

Px1Green

Px1Blue

ERROR CODE

LINE COUNT

DIVERSE

This is a line counter starting from image start.

-

Byte1

Byte0

Px1Red

Px1Green

Px1Blue

LINE COUNT

SPEED2HIGH

DIVERSE

This bit is set if the line trigger exceeds the cameras maximum line rate. This is Bit7 of Px1Red.

BIT7

BIT6

…

BIT0

Px2Red

SPEED2HIGH

-

LINE TIME

DIVERSE

This is the current measured line time in camera internal clock cycles.


BIT7…4

BIT3…0

Byte1

Byte0

Px2Red

Px2Green

Px2Blue

LINE TIME CLOCKS

Package 2.1.2 and later:

Camera Variant

ALL

100

ENCODER CLOCKS

DIVERSE

This is a 24-bit counter starting at power on with 0.
These counts either the line trigger (LineStart) or Encoder pulses depending on the selected mode.

Byte2

Byte1

Byte0

Px3Red

Px3Green

Px3Blue

ENCODER CLOCKS

When setting EncoderSourceA to Off the encoder clock counter will be reset.

NEXT LINE TRIGGER POSITION

DIVERSE

Information of the next line trigger position in encoder pulses (only at encoder mode). The calculated position is

shown in a 16.8b value. If encoder averaging is used, the

value is divided by the average size. At a slave camera,

this field has the value zero.

Byte2

Byte1

Byte0

Px4Red

Px4Green

Px4Blue

NEXT LT POS RAW

To achieve the actual value, follow this formula:

TIMESTAMP

SAME

Timestamp starts counting from boot.

Byte2

Byte1

Byte0

Px5Red

Px5Green

Px5Blue

SECONDS

1MS= Milliseconds

To achieve the milliseconds part of the timestamp the

Content of Px5Blue must be multiplied by four.

LINE STATUS

DIVERSE

This entry reflects the logical level of the input lines before LineInverter. If LineInverter is enabled the value reflected by the Line Status feature is inverse.

Line

Pixel Bit

Line1

Px8Green0

Line2

Px8Green1

Line3

Px8Green2

Line4

Px8Green4

Line5

Px8Green5

Line6

Px8Green6

Line7

Px8Green7

Line9

Px8Red0

Line10

-

SCAN-DIR

DIVERSE

The scan direction

Direction

Value

Forward

0

Backward

1

Entry

Pixel Bit

Scan Direction

Px8Blue6

1 SAME indicates that all color channels contain the same value. It is sufficient to evaluate a single color component. DIVERSE indicates different values for individual color channels which should be taken into account when composing the information.

Test Pattern Generator Selector

Name

TestPatternGeneratorSelector

Standard

Description

Selects which test pattern generator is controlled by the TestPattern feature.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

See enum entry table below.

Default value

ImageProcessing

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

-

Test Pattern Generator Selector Enum Entries:

Name

Description

ImageProcessing

TestPattern feature controls the Image Processing test pattern generator.

Test Pattern

Name

TestPattern[TestPatternGeneratorSelector]

Standard

Description

Selects the type of test pattern that is generated by the device as image source.

Interface

Enumeration

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

No

Value range

See enum entry table below.

Default value

Off

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.

Test Pattern Generator Selector Enum Entries:

Name

Description

Off

Image is coming from the sensor.

GreyHorizontalRamp

Image is filled horizontally with pixels that go from the darkest possible value to the brightest.

GreyVerticalRamp

Image is filled vertically with pixels that go from the darkest possible value to the brightest.

GreyHorizontalRampMoving

Image is filled horizontally with pixels that go from the darkest possible value to the brightest and that move horizontally from left to right at each frame.

GreyVerticalRampMoving

Image is filled vertically with lines that go from the darkest possible value to the brightest and that move vertically from top to bottom at each frame.

ColorRamps

Horizontal ramp in red color channel. Vertical and horizontal ramp in green color channel. Vertical ramp in blue color channel.

TogglingPixels

Vertically and horizontally neighbored pixels have the inverse intensity value from each other.

PinStripes

Fixed pin stripe pattern with configurable background. The background is configurable with the test pattern value feature.

Test Pattern Value

Name

TestPatternValue[TestPatternGeneratorSelector]

Custom

Description

Test-Pattern-specific value that influences the appearance of the generated image.

Interface

Integer

Access mode

Read/Write

Adjustable

while grabbing

Yes

Value range

[0 – 4095]

Default value

64

Availability

ALL

Notes

-

Error behavior

See the device error code documentation.