GigE Vision stands for "Gigabit Ethernet for Machine Vision" and defines an interface standard of the industrial image processing, which enables the easy connection of industrial cameras on existing network systems. The use of the Gigabit Ethernet standard and communication over TCP/IP are a prerequisite for GigE Vision. The main objective is the highest possible compatibility between camera-, hardware and software manufacturers. GigE Vision as an interface standard between an industrial camera and a PC has already the highest and still increasing popularity compared to older standards as IEEE 1394 or USB. The possible migration path to 10-Gigabit Ethernet is certainly an another reason for that development.

The GigE Vision standard refers to the generally accepted software interface GenICam, which provides generic functions to communicate with the camera devices. The description language used for this purpose is XML. The GigE Vision standard defines the automatic log-on of the components in the network, the allocation of the IP adresses, the configuration and control of the digital camera and the connection-oriented data transfer by means of the GVCP protocol.

The advantages of GigE Vision are exchangeability of the hardware and the industrial approach. Inexpensive components can be used by the image processing thereby, as well as the known cabling components of gigabit Ethernet. A data throughput of about 100 MB/s can be reached by the data transfer rate of the gigabit Ethernet. Cameras of various manufacturers can be used for streaming and industrial image processing because of the IEEE standard which the gigabit ethernet is based on. The bridgeable distance is 100 m, which was very hard or not to realize over a twisted-pair cable with the previous mentioned standards.

Presentation of a problem

The use of Windows operating systems is indispensable in the image processing, because of most applications demanding Windows. But if high resolution images like recordings of a GigE Vision compatible camera have to be processed in a time-critical manner on a PC, more than one camera is connected or further appliciations are being executed at the same time, then a real-time extension for Windows is required because the Windows timer becomes unprecise, data packages are partially dropping out or they arrive with an extensive delay.

The solution is a real-time function library, where data is transferred directly from the hardware to the kernel level. In that place they can be processed time-critically within an independent real-time multitasking environment.

The Kithara »RealTime Suite« includes more than 20 different modules for hardware dependent and real-time related programming. It includes high-precision real-time timer, supports Ethernet boards by Intel and RealTek and provides Real-Time CAN, EtherCAT Master and Profibus Master to automate existing field-bus systems faster, easier and more time-critical because the performance of today's PCs is sufficient enough for PC-based real-time solutions.