Allied Vision, a developer of camera technology and image capture solutions, and Optotune AG, a provider of liquid lenses, presented an integrated system at Automate 2024, recently held in Chicago, Illinois. Allied Vision’s compact and flexible Alvium cameras now support Optotune liquid lenses enabling customers in a variety of markets and applications such as industrial inspection, facial recognition, barcode reading, drones, mail/package sorting, robotics and medical and scientific imaging.

The Alvium 1800 U-507c with Sony IMX264, which runs 34.0 frames per second at 5.1 MP resolution, wasSource: Allied Vision showcased at the event. The lens from Optotune is the ELM-25-2.8-18-C with the ECC-1C controller. The camera zeroed in on multiple other Allied Vision cameras set up all at different distances and interchanged the focus between each one. Allied Vision's VimbaX SDK combined with custom firmware, officially available in Q3 this year, allows the camera to control the lens using the GenICam standard. The concept is to show the ability to rapidly change working distances; giving customers the flexibility in applications where objects are moving quickly or where the distance between the camera and the object changes frequently.

Benefits of liquid lens technology

Optotune has co-designed with its optics partners a series of lens modules developed around its electrically tunable lenses resulting in optically optimized and integrated solutions that simplify the design of vision systems. Customers benefit from fully tested modules, low f-numbers without vignetting and compact solutions. Liquid lenses have no moving parts making them durable and reliable — they also offer flexibility and versatility because they can be remotely adjusted and integrated for various applications at once.