More than simple images

Whether for laboratory analyses, quality assurance or process optimisation: cameras today are not only expected to deliver images, but also to be able to recognise objects, generate results or trigger subsequent processes. This versatility and performance makes cameras of the AI system IDS NXT an important building block for automation projects. It is designed so that users can use it even without Deep Learning or programming knowledge. The application spectrum of the cameras can be flexibly controlled via Vision Apps. With the current software update, IDS has made app development even more user-friendly.

Imagine that you want your intelligent IDS NXT camera to assign different objects to certain classes - how would you proceed? First of all, you need a Vision App. You can easily create one yourself in a guided workflow with the new case in the Use Case Assistant in the cloud-based software IDS NXT lighthouse. Simply select the use case that fits your project. With queries and tips, the assistant guides you through the process of creating the Vision App project and creates the code, just like in an interview. It links existing training projects with the vision app project or creates new training projects and data sets in IDS NXT lighthouse if required. The use case "Classify inspection points" supplements the case "OK or NOK" already introduced in the last software update.

If you want to take a step further and create simple sequences in a few minutes without having to know the syntax of a specific programming language, you now use the new visual code editor. With the combinable blocks and the intuitive user interface of the Block-based Editor, anyone can realise their own projects using AI-based image processing (such as object detection or classification) as an individual vision app without having to know the syntax of a specific programming language. Using the predefined blocks of the code editor, users build their vision app graphically, including processes such as loops and conditional statements. How this works is demonstrated, for example, in the IDS Vision Channel. The session "Build AI vision apps without coding – xciting new easiness" is available for viewing as a recording.

IDS NXT is a comprehensive system with a wide range of workflows and tools for realising your own AI vision applications. The intelligent IDS NXT cameras can process tasks "OnDevice" and deliver image processing results themselves. The tasks of the cameras are determined by apps that are uploaded to the cameras and executed there. Their functionality can thus be changed at any time. This is supported by software such as IDS NXT lighthouse, with which users can not only train neural networks, but now also create their own Vision Apps. The system offers both beginners and professionals enormous scope for designing AI vision applications.