TI DLP LightCrafter™ 4500 opens doors to real-time, inline machine vision products

DALLAS, USA & SHENZHEN, CHINA: Texas Instruments (TI) DLP Products, which, earlier this year, made the DLP LightCrafter™ 4500 light-steering evaluation module available to companies, engineers, and the broader developer community, announced the module's compatibility with PandaBoard.

The DLP LightCrafter 4500 combined with the new PandaBoard 4500 provides users with an embedded platform that eliminates the need for a dedicated laptop or PC. The combination of PandaBoard 4500 with DLP LightCrafter 4500 allows for the creation of self-contained, high-precision mobile tools to meet a growing number of applications, such as inline machine vision systems, portable, high accuracy 3D scanners, and field spectrometers.

"DLP LightCrafter 4500 is a powerful tool on its own for manipulating light in current and new applications," said Mariquita Gordon, business manager, DLP Embedded. "By offering a seamless connection between DLP LightCrafter 4500 and the well-known PandaBoard, we're expanding the ease of use to help developers turn an idea into a prototype, and then into a real-world product to solve problems with programmable light."

Most solutions will leverage a PC or embedded processor. For more portable or handheld solutions, the PandaBoard 4500 allows users to run larger, more complex apps through DLP LightCrafter 4500, while the built-in 1GHz, dual-core processor improves both pattern loading speeds and streaming rates. PandaBoard's 1GB of onboard RAM and an SD card slot also includes a suite of connectivity options, including Ethernet, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, HDMI output and a camera input connector.

The worldwide network of existing PandaBoard users adds another layer of support and enables developers to leverage the Android, Ubuntu and Linux operating systems to bring DLP LightCrafter 4500-driven solutions to market faster.

Charley Yang from China based DLP Design House, WinTech Digital, says, "We are having great success helping developers customize the DLP LightCrafter 4500 for use in applications such as 3D measurement and 3D printing."

PandaBoard 4500 is available for purchase from SVTronics ($210 SRP).