Skip to main content

Theia lenses bring it all together

Theia Technologies’ IQ Lens System has motor control board & calibration data with SDK & GUI
September 1, 2024 Read time: 3 mins
Public transport is just one of the applications for Theia's lenses

Theia Technologies’ IQ Lens System brings together a motorised lens, motor control board, calibration data, with SDK and GUI to form a modular, highly configurable system. Until recently, users needed to develop their own motor control software. 

Theia’s IQ Lens System software application and intuitive graphical user interface saves the user considerable development effort and cost, speeding time to market. The IQ Lens calibration data provides intelligence that enables optimal image quality and easy imaging system setup. The compact, lightweight varifocal lens and motor control board provide for remote operation in hard to reach or mobile environments. Combined, these elements allow for convenient and cost-effective integration into the imaging system.  

Theia’s motorised lenses use stepper motors to operate the zoom, focus, iris, and integrated NIR filters of the lens. The lenses provide the ability to adjust the zoom and focus remotely, avoiding costly field calibration and traffic disruptions. 

Theia’s new IQ Lens System comes with a software application for easy integration into the imaging system. The software automatically converts engineering units into motor steps, using Theia’s available lens control library and graphical user interface allowing users to set a field of view, depth of field, or object distance without the need for external calculations, curve fitting, and interpolation. 

The system also includes the MCR IQ Motor Control Board with software application and GUI to convert motor steps into machine commands that move the lens to the desired position. The board communicates via USB, UART, or i2c protocols for integration flexibility. Purchase of the IQ Lens and Board includes royalty free licences to use the applications, both available as Python modules for program development. 

Theia’s IQ Lens System provides calibration data with a measured average zoom/focus tracking curve which can be used to quickly find focus after changing zoom position. Knowing this relationship allows the user to remotely programme the focus and zoom motor position, enabling image optimisation in difficult-to-access cameras such as traffic gantries in ITS. 

The IQ Lens System also provides focal length calibration allowing the user to know the relationship between focal length and zoom motor step position. This allows for accurate field of view setup enabling imaging systems requiring variable camera positions or object distances such as mobile speed cameras, where field of view and object distance change. 

Included with the IQ Lens are design data common across lenses in the same family. This includes aperture size for lighting control in dynamic outdoor environments such as ANPR, geometrical distortion data that enables positional corrections for multiple focal lengths, and relative illumination allowing adjustment at different focal lengths and F/# settings for applications needing uniformly exposed scenes. 

The data is available for download from Theia’s cloud database with application notes for using the data.

Theia’s lightweight, compact IQ Lens System with motorised varifocal lens, motor control board, calibration data, and software provide convenience, flexibility, and optimized image quality in a cost-effective package to support demanding ITS applications. 

Fast. Intelligent. Cost-effective. Just plain smart!

Content produced in association with Theia Technologies

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Kowa 1.1'' 12MP Lens Series optimised for Sony Sensors
    October 25, 2018
    Kowa has released a new lens series for 12MP cameras with a 1.1” chip size and a pixel size of 3.45µm. The new FC series is optimized to fit the micro lenses of the new Sony sensors IMX253 and IMX304, so that unwanted shading on the sensor is prevented. The lenses are also wide-band coated which effectively decreases glare and reflection and produces a high transmission from the visible to the NIR wavelength. The focal lengths 8.5mm, 16mm, 25mm and 35mm are already on sale. The focal lengths 6.5mm, 12mm a
  • Eneo’s triple-streaming IP cameras feature cross-web browser set-up
    June 7, 2016
    Eneo’s new generation IP camera range includes five Candid bullet cameras, four Callisto domes and two Candid box cameras to suit a wide range of indoor and outdoor applications. The cameras come with a choice of 2MP (1920 x 1080p) progressive scan CMOS and 3MP (2048 x 1536p) or 5MP (2592 x 1944p) Sony Starvis sensors. Each camera is triple streaming (2x H.264, 1x MJPEG) and includes high quality MP lenses.
  • Introducing Hitachi’s HD optical zoom camera
    January 15, 2013
    Hitachi’s DI-SC120R camera includes a new feature, defog, that the camera processes in real time. Images are resolved for highly magnified stable images in foggy conditions such as urban surveillance, traffic monitoring and pole mounted applications. The camera measures each pixel for fog thickness and applies contrast to the image to offer a uniform image. The camera’s one-third inch CCD sensor provides a full resolution of 1280x720. Hitachi has combined its proprietary Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to a
  • Lenses from Fujinon
    February 2, 2012
    Fujinon has introduced two newly developed, 2/3" sensor size 5 Megapixel lenses for day/night applications: the HF35SR4A-1/SA1, with a focal length of f=35mm and F2, and the HF50SR4A-1/SA1, offering f=50mm and F2.8. Iris control can be either manual or automatic, by DC signal. Due to the combination of high resolution and IR correction, the company says these lenses are ideally suited for CCTV and security as well as for traffic applications, such as automatic number plate recognition.