High resolution lenses for machine iiision — standard and custom lens design
Vision Inspections Enhance Rail Security
High Resolution Lenses for machine vision, instrumentation, inspection and vibration-sensitive applications. Standard and custom hi-res lens assemblies.
Vision Inspections
Border patrol and customs officials are tasked with ensuring the safety of the borders and this can mean a wide number of issues including people or weapons being smuggled across the borders under vehicles or trains. It’s the task of the border officials to inspect the undercarriages of these vehicles which can sometimes be time consuming if they need to physically crawl under each and every vehicle and train car.
To aid in the inspections, engineers have designed a vision-based inspection system that can immediately detect if there have been any additions or modifications made to a vehicle. The vision based inspection cameras can enhance the safety of the customs officials because it alleviates a manual inspection.
How it works
When a train passes through the inspection system a camera with a dual-view scanner that has been embedded between the tracks captures a video of the undercarriage with two separate viewing angles. The images captured are streamed to a computer that is monitored by a customs official. The system also scans the RFID tags that are embedded on the rail cars as a way to determine the point of origination of the cars. The vehicles/rail cars are not only scanned as a one-time event, their RFID tags are compared to similar information in the stored database to check for any differences, irregularities from current scans as compared to former scans.
The differences, if any are detected, are flagged automatically and an alert is dispatched that results in an immediate physical inspection.
What is the technology?
The camera used for this inspection is a monochrome machine vision camera and it utilizes an optical system that allows for a single imager within the camera to capture two images simultaneously. The camera technology also allows for the scanner to grab images over the crossbeams, in pockets of the undercarriage and over the vehicle axels.
To determine the direction of travel for the train on the tracks, laser sensors are placed along the railroad track. The lasers are triggered as the train moves over it and the sensors determine the location of the RFID tags and thus the trains’ orientation.
Universe Optics is a manufacturer of standard and custom machine vision lenses. Universe Optics also creates lens assemblies for scanners, CCTV, CCD/CMOS, medical imaging, surveillance systems and night vision systems. The company has been involved in the manufacture of lenses and technologies such as those used in this laser and visioning technology.