User Manual
Wildcat
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Date:
XF-104_03/20-12-2012
Page 18 of 58
Basic image acquisition
There are 5 basic aspects of acquiring an image:
1. Gain: the general sensitivity to IR light.
2. Exposure time: how long the sensor integrates the light flux for each frame it sends.
3. Frame time: the maximal frame rate of the camera.
4. Windowing: which area of the sensor FPGA is used for image acquisition.
5. Reverse X and Y: flipping the image around either axis.
The actual frame rate of the camera will be dependent on a combination of camera speed,
exposure time, frame time and the applied window.
For a detailed calculation of the
actual frame rate with specific camera settings, consult the framerate calculator on
the USB drive.
This chapter assumes the camera is operating in
Free running
mode and will generate its
own internal triggers. For more details on the various triggering options, refer to Chapter
6.2.
Changing camera gain
Camera gain allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the camera
’s IR sensor to the light
intensity of the scene without altering the exposure time. The Wildcat supports 2 gain
modes: high gain (most sensitive) and low gain (least sensitive). The sensitivity difference
between both is approximately a factor of 5.5.
To switch between gains, use the
Device Control
– Gain
setting.
Calibration packs are only applicable for a specific gain. This setting has no impact on
framerate.
The corresponding camera register may be found in Chapter 9.1.6.
