Projects menu

Area Measuring System

Introduction

A video camera with a light box is a simple way to measure the area of a flat irregular opaque object such as animal hide. Even the cheapest video-conferencing camera ('webcam') can resolve 76,800 pixels (320x240), giving very precise measurements. The limit of accuracy is lens aberration, measurements are typically accurate to about +/-2% over the field of view. If sufficient object distance is practicable then 1% accuracy is easily achievable by restricting measurements to the less-distorting centre portion of the field.

This system uses the video camera to take a photgraph of the object on command. It eliminates background from the image, determines which pixels are background and which are product, and then counts them. It scales the result into 'real' units of area, displays it on the screen and outputs it to a log file.

In order to allow robust industrial controls to be used, the system provides for command input through the computer's game port.

Downloads

Two downloads are available, the complete system for new clean installations, and an upgrade for existing systems which will update the relevant files without affecting any existing data.

Complete Download version 1.01 (938kb)
Run (extract) the downloaded file to an installation diskette or temporary folder. It will by default extract to C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
Any previous version should be removed before performing a complete installation.
On the target machine run SETUP.EXE from the diskette or temporary folder. This will by default create an entry in the StartUp menu for the Area Measurement System, and entries in the main Program menu for the Help and Product Data files. If you are not installing on a dedicated machine and do not want autostart, then change the icon destination folder during installation.

Update Download from 1.0 to 1.01 (277kb).
Run (extract) the downloaded file on the target machine. It will directly update the files in
C:\Program Files\Puposet Limited\Area Measurement System
If you have installed elsewhere then enter the correct path during extraction.

Copyright

Copyright ©2003 Tim Jackson.
This software and documentation may be copied,distributed and/or modified under certain conditions, but it comes WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
See the
Design Science License for more details.