Basler Vision Technologies has started series production of the first four models in the ace series of compact area scan cameras. Basler's ace is ultra-compact GigE camera with Power over Ethernet (PoE).

The ace models include both mono and color versions of the high quality Sony ICX618 VGA and ICX445 1.3 MP CCD sensors, running at 100 frames per second and 30 frames per second respectively. Basler ace cameras are just 29 x 29 x 42 mm in size and offer sophisticated features such as Power over Ethernet, opto-isolated digital inputs and outputs, a 60 MB on-board image buffer, and user sets for storing parameters.

The ace-series was designed to make GigE available to new markets. The ace has the same form factor as many "sugar cube" type of industry standard IEEE 1394b, USB 2.0, and analog cameras, while adding enhanced functionality and better imaging performance.

Henning Tiarks, Team Leader Product Management and responsible person for the ace series explains: "Basler ace cameras are ideal for intelligent traffic systems and for robotics, electronics, semiconductor, and medical applications."

Basler ace cameras have all of the relevant features for a digital camera, such as auto-functions for gain and exposure, look-up tables, and chunk data. It also has "multi-shot", a new feature designed mainly for ITS applications that allows quick capturing of a series of images using only one trigger pulse.

Along with the release of these cameras, Basler has extended the functionality of its field-proven pylon software and driver package to support additional development environments including C, C#, Borland, Visual Basic 6.0, .NET, etc.

Series production start for the next four ace models is planned for the next quarter. Other new models are already planned to follow.