High resolution lenses for machine vision — standard and custom lens design
Capturing Baseball Pitch Speed with Infrared Camera Technology
High Resolution Lenses for machine vision, instrumentation, inspection and vibration-sensitive applications. Standard and custom hi-res lens assemblies.
Infrared Camera Technology
Watching a baseball game is a leisurely pursuit and a great way to while away a couple of hours. Imagine, though if you were the batter, standing at home plate with a baseball coming at you at close to 100 miles per hour! Prior to recent developments in camera technology, a laser beam handheld device (akin to those used by police departments to track speeding vehicles) was used. Developments in mercury cadmium telluride infrared detector technology is what now makes it possible to capture the speed with which the balls leaves the pitcher’s hand and crosses home plate.
The infrared cameras, which can be used in myriad thermal imaging applications, are also being made with the sensitivity to capture short-wave, mid- and long-wave spectral bands. This means these high frame rate cameras are equipped with sophisticated processing algorithms. The benefit of being able to choose a specific spectral band for the infrared camera is that, depending on the item being observed, the spectral band allows for laser beam viewing, surveillance and target signature analysis making the technology easy to adapt to baseball as well as other environments such as marine settings.
In order to capture the baseball in a clear image, rather than a blur, these high speed infrared cameras have varying levels of resolution and can transmit various pixel sizes.
Lenses for high resolution infrared cameras are designed with specific focal length, aperture and resolution to meet the needs of the environment in which the camera will be utilized. Being able to easily change lenses allows the camera to produce higher fields of imaging through the use of various focal length, aperture and resolution combinations.
In addition to being able to capture a clear image of a high velocity baseball, high speed infrared camera technologies are also used in applications such as capturing the deployment of a vehicle airbag, the analysis of the blades of a turbine and other specialties.
Universe Optics designs and manufactures high resolution lenses for machine vision, instrumentation, inspection and vibration-sensitive applications.