Matrox Imaging is taking a leap forward. That’s precisely what the introduction of industrial machine vision for a new range of embedded applications—through support of the Arm® Cortex®-A family of processors—represents. Matrox’s flagship software library, the Matrox Imaging Library (MIL), now supports Arm® with enhanced performance using the Neon™ SIMD architecture extension under MIL X.
While MIL has the field-proven image processing and analysis functionality world-renowned OEMs and integrators have relied on for over 20 years, MIL X on Arm® Cortex®-A processor empowers developers to imagine and conceive of applications with an unprecedented price/performance ratio!
This means you can run an MIL X runtime license on a low-cost Arm® based device (as found on a Raspberry Pi) with a USB3 camera to create solutions in situations where the high price of machine vision components precluded them. Embedded vision also addresses low-power battery-centric applications.
Embedded vision (integration of an image sensor and a processor chip) usually requires deep engineering knowledge of processor and camera sensor technologies. Now, with the MIL X on Arm® Cortex®-A series, you are now abstracted to creating your application via MIL’s time and field-tested algorithms without deep low-level engineering knowledge.
With MIL X and an Arm® Cortex®-A processor you can now easily embed a real-time vision capabilities into limited space at minimal cost. Key advantages of embedded vision systems include:
- Small footprint
- Minimal weight
- Reduced cost
- Low power consumption
For industrial applications that require extended-temperature-supported hardware and higher MTBF, Integrys offers a number of Arm® solutions, including the Diamond Systems’ Eagle leveraging the Torodex ARM SOC.
Suitable for a diverse range of industrial applications, embedded vision systems are increasingly used in factory automation applications such as automotive component manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing and processing, electronics manufacturing and assembly, industrial robots, and autonomous vehicles, including drone use.
Arm® is the industry’s most prevalent processor platform for embedded vision. The release of MIL X now provides support for a wide selection of processing, analysis, annotation, display and archiving functionality directly on the Arm® Cortex®-A family of processors. MIL X’s processing and analysis functions are optimized for speed using the Neon SIMD architecture extension.
Click here to view a primer on how to set up, configure and deploy MIL software using Arm architecture. Click here – Matrox Imaging Library X
Availability
MIL X Service Pack 4 is available now in early access form, with the official release slated for Q2 2020.For select qualified developers, MIL for Arm® is available as a separate software package compatible with the MIL X version. MIL for Arm® is supported on appropriate 64-bit Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu.
Diamond Systems’ Eagle ARM embedded system is in full production and available now.