Standard camera and artificial intelligence combined in one device

IDS NXT rio & raw industrial cameras: AI-ready via vision app.

Artificial intelligence opens up new fields of application for camera technology and image processing. The IDS NXT rio and rome (IP65/67) product families show what a flexible embedded solution looks like for the industry: An AI Vision app transforms the robust, high-performance standard industrial cameras into powerful inference cameras. Hardware and software are designed to solve AI-based tasks "on the edge." Inference times of a few milliseconds are realized. The cameras are thus comparable in accuracy and speed to modern desktop CPUs. At VISION, prototypes of the AI-enabled IDS NXT cameras were shown live for the first time. The AI-enabled camera models will be available from 2019.

With the IDS NXT product line, IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH offers an industrial-grade camera platform that enables image processing directly in the device. By playing Vision Apps, the user himself determines which image processing tasks his device should solve. This principle will also enable the use of neural networks in the future, for example for object recognition or object classification. An AI Vision app developed by IDS reconfigures embedded hardware so that, for example, the FPGA acts as an AI accelerator. At the same time, it ensures that users can load and run pre-trained KNNs (artificial neural networks) of different architectures onto the cameras. In the future, several networks can also be installed in parallel, which can then be mapping, for example, successive work steps.

The camera models also score with free lens choice through an C-Mount lens holder, industrial-grade M12 round connectors, a serial RS232 interface, GigE network connection and handy PoE ("Power-over-Ethernet"). Instead of a continuous, unfiltered stream of data, images, pre-processed data or results are transmitted directly to PCs or machine controls.

Kai Hartmann, Product Manager IDS NXT, summarizes: "The IDS NXT rio and IDS NXT rome models are redefining industrial cameras. They can be flexibly modified thanks to the Vision App-based concept and, combined with the robust case, standardized connections and powerful hardware components, enable an easy-to-integrate embedded solution for AI tasks. " From 2019, the models will be available not only with sensors from different manufacturers and resolution classes, but also as boardlevel variants for machine or equipment construction.