Cameras Menu

To configure and diagnose each camera and lens, click the desired camera under the CAMERAS menu.

Basic Settings

Each camera operates on an automatic exposure and gain mode, allowing the scanner to react quickly to changing lighting conditions in your facility. When either auto exposure and auto gain are enabled, the camera will adjust the target parameter on the fly. The auto control algorithm is guided by the Target Grey Value parameter. Increasing the Target Grey Value can result in a brighter image but will come at the cost of increased exposure or gain. If both auto gain and auto exposure are enabled, the auto control algorithm will prioritize reducing the gain if there is sufficient lighting. For adjusting exposure, the auto control algorithm is capped by the Max Exposure parameter. Increasing this parameter can result in brighter images but will come at the cost of performance while in motion.

Lighting issues can usually be attributed to lighting variations in the environment or to the Brightness setting in the Lens Setup sub-menu. It is recommended that the lighting conditions of the area be addressed prior to making changes to these parameters.

Parameter	Definition	Example
Auto Exposure	Sets exposure (see below parameter) to automatic.
Exposure (us)	A value that defines how long the sensor of the camera will acquire light for a given image. Increasing exposure can result in a brighter image but will come at the cost of lost performance while in motion. An exposure setting of 0 enables Auto Exposure mode.	0
Max Exposure (us)	Controls the maximum exposure setting that the auto control algorithm can set for Auto Exposure. Increasing max exposure can result in a brighter image but will come at the cost of lost performance while in motion.	3000
Auto Gain	Sets gain (see below parameter) to automatic.
Gain (dB)	A value that defines the digital amplification of the signal from the camera. Increasing the gain will result in a brighter image, but it comes at the cost of signal noise. Too much signal noise can result in the inability to decode a barcode. A gain setting of 0 enables Auto Gain mode.	0
Max Gain (db)	Controls the maximum gain setting that the auto control algorithm can set for Auto Gain. Increasing max gain can result in a brighter image but will come at the cost of lost performance while in motion.	30
Target Grey Value (%)	Target mean brightness value for the auto control algorithm expressed in a percent of overall pixel value. Increasing this value can result in a brighter image but can come at the expense of performance while in motion or increased signal noise.	20
Image Upload Reduction	Defines the amount by which the images that will be uploaded to the server will be reduced. A setting of 4 will result in the length and width of the image being reduced by a factor of 4.	8
Auto Function Priority	Selects the precedence of the intensity controller to either prioritize gain or prioritize exposure.

 

Display

The following parameters affect how the camera image is displayed while in RUN MODE. The Image section of the RUN MODE display is a grid with a camera image filling the positions of the grid. For multiple camera systems, this can mean that the grid can be customized by the UI Row and UI Column parameters. Rotation controls what orientation the camera images will be displayed in. By default, this is -90°. The Name parameter only controls the name displayed while in diagnostic mode. By default, it is the serial number of the camera.

Parameter	Definition	Example
Name	Displayed name of the camera while diagnostic mode is enabled.	40166837, Camera 1
Rotation	Controls the display orientation of the camera image.	-90°
UI Row	Row location on the Image grid where the camera’s image will be displayed. All grid positions start with 0.	0
UI Column	Column location on the Image grid where the camera’s image will be displayed. All grid positions start with 0.	0

Advanced Settings

The following parameters provide information to RaPTr Scanner on the approximate size of the barcode. This information can improve decoding performance on smaller or poorly printed barcodes. These parameters will also help prevent scanning unwanted barcodes in the background. The parameters can be set manually or they can be automatically calculated during the Auto Focus process.

Parameter	Definition	Example
Min Module Size (Pixels)	Minimum possible size of a module in a 2D code with units in pixels.	2
Max Module Size (Pixels)	Maximum possible size of a module in a 2D code with units in pixels.	6
Min 1D Height (Pixels)	Minimum height of a 1D code with units in pixels.	200
Barcode Area (Pixels2)	Minimum area the barcode will consume. Used to determine if a barcode is a candidate or a potential background scan.	7125

Passive Camera

The following section describes the parameters needed to enable a passive camera. For more information on passive cameras, see the Passive Camera section of this document.
Note: Changes to passive camera settings will only take effect when the scanner is restarted.

Parameter	Definition	Example
Enable	Enables passive camera mode for this camera. If enabled, the camera will not be used to scan for barcodes	TRUE
Image Delay (ms)	Time delay between when a Barcode Read Event is triggered and when the Image is captured.	5000
Hide Display Image	If Enabled, the camera’s image feed will not be displayed on the Run Mode display.	TRUE

Lens Parameters

The Lens Parameters sub-menu allows for manual changes to be made to the lens settings. For each lens setting, a series of buttons, along with a slider can be used to make changes. The sliders can be used to make large changes to these parameters, and the buttons can be used to make small, incremental changes.

Parameter	Definition
Zoom	Controls the focal length of the lens, resulting in how large a given object will appear at a given object distance. Increasing this value will make an object appear larger, decreasing will make an object appear smaller.
Brightness	Controls the aperture of the lens. A larger value will result in a larger aperture, and therefore a brighter image. Generally, minimizing this value is recommended as it provides the greatest depth of field possible.
Focus	Controls the focus setting of the lens. Whenever there is an adjustment made to zoom, the focus will also need to be changed.

Diagnostics

Within the cameras menu, the DIAGNOSTICS sub-menu can be used to verify camera performance. When the scanner is actively reading a barcode, the barcode is highlighted in green on the displayed image. See following example image.
Note: If there is no barcode being actively read, these parameters may not be visible.

Parameter	Definition
Last Result	Displays value of barcode being read.
Module Width and Height	Indicates size of the modules within the 2-dimensional barcode being read. Units are pixels.
Narrow Bar Width	Indicates size of the narrow bar within the 1-dimensional barcode being read. Units are pixels.
Contrast Score	Metric of how well the color density of the pixels are distributed across the image. The higher the Contrast Score, the better. A high Contrast Score means that white pixels are easily identifiable against black pixels. To manually adjust contrast, drag the Brightness slider in the Lens Parameters sub-menu.

To influence the Module Width and Height values in the DIAGNOSTICS sub-tab, use the Zoom setting in the Lens Parameters sub-menu. A larger barcode ensures better readability at the cost of a reduced field of view. The goal is to strike a balance between size of barcode and the area within which the camera can see and read barcodes. Zooming the lens in allows it to read smaller barcodes while also reducing surrounding visibility. Zooming the lens out allows it to see a larger area but it may not be able to find barcodes in the image that are too small.

The Barcode image is the most recent decoded barcode, cropped and zoomed for viewing purposes. The Histogram is a graphical representation of the pixel values of the cropped barcode image. When focusing the lens, the image of the barcode should appear crisp and two distinct peaks should appear on the histogram. Two images follow that demonstrate a well-focused lens and a lens that is slightly out of focus.