e-con Systems, a developer of embedded camera solutions, has announced the launch of a new multiple camera solution for the NVIDIA Jetson Tegra X1/X2 development kit, the e-CAM30_HEXCUTX2. As a scaling partner of NVIDIA, e-con Systems is constantly developing camera solutions for NVIDIA TX1 and TX2 processors.
e-CAM30_HEXCUTX2 is ideal for applications where multiple Full HD Cameras are required. All the six cameras can be synchronized for 360° camera applications that demand high resolution and synchronization, such as high-end day/night surveillance, autonomous vehicles and drones. The system features high image quality and good low-light sensitivity, an integrated ISP and interchangeable M12 lens.
“We have been receiving lot of enquiries from our customers for supporting six cameras on NVIDIA Tegra X1 and X2 platforms and we are happy to launch our e-CAM30_HEXCUTX2 for our customers. This is based on e-con’s hugely popular low light camera e-CAM_CUMI0330_MOD. The customized microcoaxial cable interface of the camera is 30cm in length and offers greater flexibility in mechanical arrangement of cameras and better mechanical reliability thanks to its locking connector,” said Mr. Ashok Babu, President, e-con Systems Inc. “Customers can build the TX1/TX2 carrier boards based on their requirements and have our cameras to build their final target application such as 360 degree video surveillance, large area imaging or even 720 degree video capture by placing 6 cameras in the shape of a cube,” he added.
The NVIDIA TX1 and TX2 have an ability to support up to six 2-lane MIPI CSI-2 cameras simultaneously.
e-CAM30_HEXCUTX2 is a multiple camera solution for NVIDIA Jetson TX1/TX2 developer kits that consists of six 3.4MP 2-Lane MIPI CSI-2 camera boards and an adapter board (e-CAMHEX_TX2ADAP) to interface with the J22 connector on the Jetson TX1/TX2. Each camera is based on the camera module eCAM30_CUMI0330_MOD, 1/3″ AR0330 color CMOS image sensor from ON Semiconductor and integrated Advanced Image Signal Processor (ISP). All six cameras are connected to the eCAMHEX_TX2ADAP adapter board using customized Micro-Coaxial cables.
To ensure the sturdiness of the system, e-con Systems has designed a very flexible 30cm long microcoaxial cable with connector locks at both ends, allowing users to easily connect both camera boards and adapter board.
The e-CAM30_HEXCUTX2 streams 720p(HD), 1080p (Full HD) and 3.4MP @ 30fps in uncompressed YUV422 Format in both synchronous and asynchronous mode.
The e-CAM30_HEXCUTX2 solution is ideal for users who wish to leverage the high speed MIPI CSI-2 interface of the Tegra X1 and Tegra X2 CPU. e-con Systems has developed the V4L2 API based camera driver on top of JetPack 2.3/3.0 version from NVidia. The camera driver is a standard V4L2 driver, and any V4L2 compatible application can access the camera. e-con Systems distributes a gstreamer based sample application that demonstrates the video preview from all the six cameras. The viewer application runs on an Ubuntu distribution on the Jetson development board.
The system also allows frame synchronization of all six cameras. The sample application has an option to enable and disable the synchronization.
The camera modules in the e-CAM30_HEXCUTX2 kit are provided with the S-mount (M12) lens mount that enables users to choose a lens of their choice. The module houses a high-performance ISP chip that performs Auto functions (Auto Exposure, Auto White Balance, etc.) in addition to the complete ISP pipeline that provides images and video. All six cameras support the 2-lane MIPI CSI-2 interface for video transport and the standard I2C interface for camera control.
