Centroid Estimator Unit (CEU)is used in Adaptive Optics Applications. Each Electronics Board for Centroid consists of following blocks:
Video Grabbing Unit Threshold Unit
Centroid Estimator Unit Software Development GUI
USB Interface Unit Sensor Interface/Control Unit
Centroid Estimator Unit receives the input video from a high-speed camera-link interface/CVBS. The frames of the input video are grabbed in real-time, then processed for thresholding and centroid estimation of the spot (tested@ 5000 frames per second). Finally, the centroid coordinates are sent to PC via USB/Ethernet interface.
The acquisition, thresholding and centroid estimation processing is implemented in embedded hardware (FPGA) to meet the real time constraints.

Features
- MDR26/SDR26 Camera with standard Camera-link interface.
- 3 modes of configuration on DALSA Camera:
- 256 x 256 @ 2200 fps
- 64 x 64 @ 5000 fps
- 128 x 128 @ 5000 fps
- Cam-link Frame Grabber to receive images from camera.
- No role of the CEU unit while configuring the camera.
- Real-time centroid calculations accuracy up-to 3 decimal points.
- Option to select stream threshold image or the original input image.
- 4-channel ADC and 4-channel DAC to propagate analog control information from/to other modules.
- Output Video Display via HDMI and CVBS interface.
- Memory: Volatile – 4Gb DDR3 SDRAM; 4-Mbit Static RAM.
- Non-Volatile – 32GB iNAND; 256Mb Serial NOR Flash.
- Power Supply: 12 to 32V DC @ 2A.
- LEDs: Status; Power; FPGA & User LEDs.
- Configuration Options: On Board non-volatile memory; JTAG;Software GUI.
- Communication Interfaces: USB 3.0; UART; 10/100/1000 Ethernet.
- Clock: System Clock 100MHz; Secondary Clock 40/50 MHz; DDR3 Clock 200MHz.
- Operating Environment: 00C to +850C.
Applications
- Astronomy
- Vision science
- Microscopy
- Microelectronics
- Laser weapons
- Improving Beam quality
- Free-Space Optical communication
- Optical trapping
- Laser Beam Optimization for atomic trapping
- Intra-cavity/extra cavity beamshaping
Software Specifications
- A Software GUI is provided in Tab format for ease of use.
- GUI runs on USB/ Ethernet interface & supports Windows 7 and higherversions.
- Option to select between different ROI modes.
- Option to program threshold between 0 to 255.
- Option to display received images of 256×256 in Host-PC @ 30 fps.
- Option to select whether to show threshold image or the original input image.
- An image window of 256 x 256 having horizontal and vertical lines in the middle indicating the centre position.
- Either of 256×256 or 128×128 or 64×64 grey scale image will be shown always in the centre of above window.
- Real-time streaming of X and Y centroid coordinates to PC@5000 fps rate.
- Option to record frames in on-board DDR3 memory of 512 Mbyte, and then retrieve frames in Host-PC.
- Above recorded data is available to user in Matlab or C.
- Self-test feature of different interfaces.
Connectors | |||
RS-232 via dB-9 | Video In, Video Out via SMB | GPIOs | Reset Switch |
Power Input | Dip Switches | JTAG Header | ADC Inputs |
DAC Outputs | Ethernet | CAM-Link Transmit | CAM-Link Receive |
UART via USB 2.0 | HDMI out | USB 3.0 |
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