External Lighting

Lighting is one of the most impactful yet customizable elements of machine vision. From selecting the best lighting options to configuring them in the most optimal setups, customizing lighting for your applications can help produce significantly better results. The most successful machine vision applications use lighting that increase contrast on features of interest while minimizing visual noise. In general, we strongly recommend working with an integrator to ensure your lighting is optimized for your specific use case and spatial conditions.

While all VS2 units feature integrated LED lights, Samsara also offers additional lighting accessories to better support a greater range of products and facilities. 

Bar lights

Bar lights are strips of lights that can be mounted in a variety of configurations to provide light from different angles. As a result, bar lights are a flexible lighting solution that can be used in a variety of use cases from providing contrast for reading objects on matte surfaces to highlighting defects or scratches.

Ring lights

Ring lights provide a concentrated source of light that can be used to remove shadows from an area of interest. It can cause glare so it will not work well for reflective surfaces.

Dome lights

Dome lights provides uniform lighting on the product to help capture perform inspections on shiny or bumpy surfaces. Dome lights can be mounted both close to the object being inspected for diffused lighting, or further away for a spotlight effect.

Backlights

Backlights provide diffuse lighting from a large rectangular source. These are most effective when used in a backlighting configuration (see next section).

Light Orientation

Bright Field Lighting

Type of Lights: Bar, Ring, Dome

Application: This is best used to generating contrast for object details while removing a “hot spot” from direct lighting.

Angled / Dark Field Lighting

Type of Lights: Bar, Ring

Application: The shallow angle of light allows for surface features, such as blemishes, scratches, or imprints to jump out against the background.

Backlighting

Type of Lights: Backlight

Application: This type of lighting accentuates outlines and gaps of products. It can also highlight blemishes on clear surfaces.

Blog Post: 3 Tips for Better Machine Vision Lighting

Video: Machine Vision Camera Settings