Point Grey just made the official announcement of the FL3-U3-13S2 camera model that will expand the Flea3 USB 3.0 series unleashed about two month ago (and which we covered here). The Flea3 camera series is specifically made for machine and computer vision applications.
Thus, the products are unlike all the consumer-oriented photo and video cameras that users expect to find on shelves or online.
In fact, the Flea3 aim for compactness and will be encountered in astronomy, microscopy, biophotonics, prosumer applications and other scientific venues.
A FL3-U3-13S2 model has been formally revealed now, based on the Sony IMX035 high-quality CMOS sensor.
Given this sensor, it can take 1.3 megapixel images (resolution of 1,328 x 1,024 pixels) at 120 fps (frames per second).
Also, the IMX035 features the Sony Exmor technology, which “combines the speed of CMOS with advanced-quality image sensor technologies accumulated through the development of CCDs.”
Basically, the very compact camera is a very good, very fast USB 3.0 device, with 32 MB frame buffer.
Furthermore, Point Grey threw in its very own USB 3.0 link layer IP (intellectual property) and a status monitoring, in-field updatable firmware.
“Point Grey is delivering on its promise to develop a full line of USB 3.0 products designed to address the demands of our customers for speed, reliability, and ease-of-use,”
says Michael Gibbons, product marketing manager at Point Grey.
“With complete control over the camera’s core technology, we have the flexibility to choose what features we develop and the timing of our releases without relying on third-party chip vendors. We are also manufacturing our own USB 3.0 PCI Express interface cards and providing our own low-level xHCI driver, providing users with a reliable end-to-end imaging pipeline.”
With a price of $695 (515.57 Euro), the FL3-U3-13S2 should already be available in North America. More Flea3 will show up in 2012.
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