Patent ID: 7587261
Filing Date: 2009-09-08
Classification: G06F,G06T,H04L

Abstract:
1. A system for acquiring and transmitting images to a machine vision system having a host processor that allocates memory space for storage of said images acquired by said system, said system comprising: image acquisition means responsive to one or more trigger signals to begin acquiring at least a portion of two or more of said images, memory means holding said memory space for storing at least a portion of data representative of the at least a portion of the two or more of said images acquired by the image acquisition means, and image transfer means for controlling transfer of said at least a portion of data representative of the at least a portion of the two or more of said images acquired by the image acquisition means from said image acquisition means to said memory means, said image transfer means having buffer memory means for receiving and storing at least a portion of said images pending at least an allocation of said memory space in said memory means by the host processor for said images, wherein said image acquisition means can operate substantially independently of the allocation of memory by the host processor to acquire the images at any time relative to the allocation of the memory space in said memory means by the host processor, and wherein the transfer of said at least a portion of data representative of the at least a portion of the two or more of said images acquired by the image acquisition means occurs in response to a release signal or a hold signal generated in response to two or more signals asserted by one or more components forming a portion of a data path for transmission of image data from the image acquisition means to the memory means.