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| Product Selection Guide |
| Which board should I
get for video recognition? |
If you do not have a particular
sensor in mind or available to you, the CM-IR
board features a high quality monochrome CMOS
sensor from Micron delivering up to 60 frames per
second at a resolution of 752x480. |
If you want to use
a specific sensor, the CM-EB board features a
digital video input bus with one pixel clock line,
the line valid and frame valid synchronization
lines and a 16-bit data bus. We recommend that you
refer to the CM-EB datasheet to verify that your
sensor is fully compatible with the board. Also if
you want to take advantage of the recognition
logic built into the CogniMem chip, the pixel
clock must be less than or equal to 27 Mhz and the
pixel data must be 8-bit. If otherwise, you may
have to customize the firmware loaded in the FPGA
of CM-EB to condition your video signal prior to
broadcasting it to the CogniMem neurons. |
Which board should I get to
work with images saved to disk? |
If you have no intend to work
with live video images, CM-EB will allow you to
transmit the feature vector extracted from your
images to the CogniMem neurons. The learning and
recognition of the vectors will occur on the
board. The Easy_Image_Trainer application supplied
with the board can extract monochrome and color
sub samples from images (bmp or jpg). The CogniMem
SDK allows developers to interface with the CM-EB
and CogniMem chip from their
applications. |
Can I use a color
sensor? |
Yes, a color sensor may be
interfaced with CM-EB. However please note that
the recognition engine built into the CogniMem
chip extracts a monochrome feature from the video
image. This means that the display may appear in
color but the recognition will be based on the
luminosity only. If the color information is
critical to your application, the extraction of a
color signature can be programmed in the FPGA of
the CM_EB board and send to the neurons in
"Bypass" mode instead of"Video" mode. |
Can I use a sensor with a pixel
resolution greater than 8-bit? |
Yes, a 10, 12 or 16-bit sensor
may be interfaced with CM-EB. However please note
that the recognition engine built into the
CogniMem chip only receives the 8-bit data mapped
from line [9-2] of the CM-EB input bus . If the
higher resolution is critical to your application,
the extraction of a custom signature can be
programmed in the FPGA of the CM_EB board and send
to the neurons in "Bypass" mode instead of "Video"
mode. |
Can I use CM-IR if I am not a
programmer? |
Definitely. CM-IR is delivered
with a ready-to-use application called
Easy_Video_Trainer. You can teach what you want to
recognize, monitor the results of the recognition
on screen and when satisfied with the results save
the knowledge to the Flash memory of the CM-IR
board. You can then disconnect the board from your
PC and connect it to an external power supply so
it resumes recognition autonomously. Note that the
default configuration of the board monitors a
fixed single region of interest. If your
application requires scanning, tracking or more,
contact Recognetics to obtain a list of partners
whom can help you with the programming of the
board. |
Can I do target tracking with
CM-IR? |
Yes. A simple demonstration of
target tracking can be made with
Easy_Video_Tracker by learning a known target at 3
different positions within a region of interest
centered in the field of view: (1) target is
centered, (2) shifted to the right, (3) shifted to
the left. When the recognition logic of the
CogniMem chip is active, the recognized category
is transmitted to the GPIO lines at frame rate.
This means that a motion controller properly
interfaced with CM_IR (both mechanically and
electronically) could always re-center the target
to be in the middle of the field of
view. |
