New Vision Sensor with Linear and Data Matrix Code Reading Capability from Balluff

The new entrant in the low-cost vision sensor product line of Balluff is the SharpShooter ID vision sensor. The new sensor is capable of reading one dimensional as well as two dimensional data matrix barcodes that are seen on products. The SharpShooter provides a high resolution barcode reading compared to the other sensors in this price range.

The SharpShooter contains an ID version that can read a wide range of linear barcodes, two dimensional Data matrix code and the optical character verification (OCV). The SharpShooter is a low-cost and easily configurable sensor. The vision sensor has the ability to read 10 different linear codes, which include PDF417 and 2D Data Matrix codes as well. Printed as well as DPM characters can be read by this sensor. There is an exclusive OCV tool, which is designed to read and verify alphanumeric characters in date codes or expiry information that are present along with barcodes.

Mark Sippel, the Industrial Identification product manager at Balluff, claimed that the SharpShooter comprises a high resolution algorithm that gives highly accurate code reading at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. He added that the sensor complied with ECC 200 standards and comes along with an Ethernet and Serial communication port and a pass/fail I/O

The CONVIS, windows-based simple three step configuration software, is used in the SharpShooter. The CONVIS software makes use of an Ethernet network connection in order to monitor multiple vision sensors by a single PC. Both the advanced and the standard measurement versions of the SharpShooter can be configured using the same software with ease. Similar to the measurement versions, the ID version of the SharpShooter has 20 configuration/jobs of storage capacity, capable of switching remote jobs through Input/Output. The ID version also has lighting trigger and internal image storage capacities.