Among today's digital PC interfaces, USB is by far the most widely used. According to current sales statistics, more than 10 billion devices with a USB connection have been sold to date. Thanks to the integrated power supply via the USB cable, the interface is especially well suited to small devices without a power supply system of their own.

On November 12, 2008, the “USB Implementers Forum” (abbreviated: USB-IF), which groups companies such as HP, Intel, and Microsoft, presented the first revision of the new specification. The first chips USB 3.0 where available by mid-2009. FPGA-based host controllers have already reached data transfer rates of about 400 MB/sec.
      

With its version 2.0, USB already combines many of the advantages that make this interface highly suitable for use in industrial image processing: Sufficient bandwidth to simultaneously transmit live images even from multiple cameras, the fact that it is widely used in IPCs and embedded systems, easy connectivity without the need for external power sources, and chipsets which allow building compact and cost-effective cameras. With these characteristics, the USB 2.0 interface currently is, according to a market survey2, the top choice for industrial image processing users, even though Gigabit Ethernet, with its higher bandwidth, is catching up.
 While the bandwidth of this interface, which is celebrating its tenth birthday, has been sufficient so far, there is a huge demand for faster data transmissions now. The current generation of CMOS sensors delivers images with a resolution of 10 megapixels – and even with a color depth of 8 bits per pixel, which is common for USB cameras, it is hardly possible to transfer four full frames per second. In addition, many sensors can also output data with a color depth of 10 or 12 bits which virtually cuts the possible frame rate in half. Further trends include the interpolation of color data in the camera or even simultaneous output of color and monochrome data. Features that have long since been available in powerful GigE cameras were not feasible in the USB world with its bandwidth of about 40 MByte/sec.

The unproblematic and fast USB 3.0 connectivity is also particularly useful e.g. for embedded applications where a high camera resolution is required, but a GigE camera is not suitable due to its external power source requirements or due to the lack of a GigE interface. The next generation of the universal bus will be ideally suited for laboratory or medical systems as well, where the strict requirements of industrial environments with respect to cable lengths do not apply.

For camera manufacturers, SuperSpeed USB is not only interesting because of the higher transmission speed – the revised and extended USB protocol allows an even more efficient, resource-friendly data transmission. By omitting polling and by supporting the future use of DMA (Direct Memory Access) USB controllers, it should be possible to retrieve image data from USB cameras virtually without requiring any CPU load.

For about two years, it has become apparent that new PCs of any kind are mainly equipped with USB 2.0 and GigE as digital interfaces. The majority of all image processing applications can operate on these two interfaces even today, while the successor standards USB 3.0 and also 10 GigE open up new possibilities for the application of industrial cameras.

JPLY camera series offer a series of modern USB and GigE cameras for image processing in industrial and non-industrial environments. JPLY has already introduced its new USB 3 .0 camera series. The new camera clearly starts a new trend in the industrial camera market and boasts a range of innovative features. It is particularly suited for 3D and multi-camera systems as well demanding industrial applications. Due to the integrated power supply the camera is perfect for applications in fields like microscopy, embedded-systems and medical technology. High resolution CMOS sensors from GITD01C to G1TD14C, complete the innovative USB 3.0 camera series.
Using the extensive JPLY SDK software package that is available for free, all cameras, no matter whether they are equipped with a USB 2.0, 3.0 or GigE interface, can be integrated with image processing libraries or custom applications. For further information about JPLY and the USB 3.0 cameras, please visit http://www.spectrumsee.com/EN/Default.aspx