Chapter 3
NI Smart Camera Image Sensor
NI 17xx Smart Camera User Manual
3-4
ni.com
Binning
Binning can improve the light sensitivity of the sensor by treating adjacent
pixels as a single pixel. Binning allows the image sensor to collect more
electrons per pixel, which reduces the amount of required light and
exposure time. Binning results in higher frame rates and lower spatial
resolution in the vertical direction. The NI Smart Camera supports
1 × 2 binning. Figure 3-3 illustrates what happens to the sensor output
during binning.
Figure 3-3.
Binning
Gain
Gain is a multiplier applied to the analog signal prior to digitization.
Increasing the gain increases the amplitude of the signal. Gain allows you
to trade off between making smaller signals more visible at the cost of
increased noise and no longer being able to differentiate between larger
signals. For most applications, the NI Smart Camera default gain setting
optimizes the balance between small signals and large signals.
a
No Binning
b
Binning
a
b
