Automate 2024 is now well underway. The annual trade show, which has brought the industry’s top players together, takes place in McCormick’s Place in Chicago, Illinois, from Monday 6th May to Thursday 9th May.
One of the key innovators at Automate this year is Basler, who are presenting a wide range of their products. The first is their liquid lens, which is attached to one of their standard C-mount lenses, allowing it to focus automatically.
At Automate, Basler are demonstrating this autofocus feature by showing a range of different objects at different heights, both in and out of focus. This is a first for Basler, who wouldn’t typically sell automatic lenses. However, they have now partnered with Optotune to add the liquid lens, which gives their customers more flexibility.
This product has a range of uses in many industries, including in traffic automation to provide safer roads. Standard cameras will typically have one focal light, but when they need to look at the safety of pedestrians, that focus is different. With a liquid lens attached, you can also focus on the vehicles on the road, as well as the pedestrians.
Elsewhere, Basler are also showcasing a range of 3D cameras, including a 3D Stereo Camera. They partnered with RoboCeption to bring this product to the United States. Visitors can also see Basler’s Time of Flight (ToF) camera in action, which uses lasers, tracking the distance which a laser is shot at an object and back, with them providing 3D data based on that.
Along with the successful solutions which are already available, Basler are capitalising on the platform at Automate to preview some of their upcoming products. Their high-powered Boost area-scan cameras boast high frame rates and exceptional detail. They will be released in Q3 2024, and it will be on show on at the VISION show in October, in Stuttgart. This will be accompanied by the Boost V which utilises the latest Gpixel sensors.
They’ve also brought their Stereo Ace camera, which is built 100% in-house by Basler. It is a camera which uses two of their ace cameras and a random dot projector. It’s highly customisable because it’s all internal parts. This is unusual for the stereo vision industry. A Basler representative confirmed that this will be released in Q4 2024, with samples coming soon.
While at their booth, we were treated to a demonstration of Basler’s RGB-D solution, using a Blaze camera and a standard Ace camera. Using the Ace camera allows you to receive colour and video information, allowing customers to incorporate 3D into their everyday life without needing to use switches or triggers.
Furthermore, visitors can see Basler’s standard portfolio of lighting, lenses, standard ace cameras and darts.
You can visit Basler at booth #2477.
