Skip to content
STAGING SERVER
DEVELOPMENT SERVER

Binning (Stereo ace)#

The Binning feature allows you to combine sensor pixel values into a single value.

This reduces latency and can increase the signal-to-noise ratio, the camera's response to light or the frame rate.

Using the Feature#

Why Use Binning#

The data transfer of 2 x 5 MP via a single Gigabit Ethernet uplink to the switch requires 80 ms. By enabling 2x2 binning on the camera, the transfer time is reduced by a factor of 4, i.e., from 80 ms to 20 ms. This reduces the latency of the camera considerably. If you also change the depth quality setting from High to Full, the calculated disparity image retains the same resolution without any noticeable loss of quality.

How It Works#

On monochrome cameras, the camera combines pixel values of by averaging directly adjacent pixels:

Horizontal Mono Binning by 4

On color cameras, the camera combines pixel values by averaging adjacent pixels of the same color:

Vertical Color Binning by 2

The binning factor specifies the number of combined adjacent pixels.

The binning mode defines how pixels are combined when binning is enabled. The Stereo ace cameras only support Average binning.

Specifying the Binning Factors#

To specify the binning factors:

  1. Make sure the camera is idle, i.e., not capturing images.
  2. Set the BinningHorizontal parameter to one of the following values:
    • 1: Disables binning.
    • 2, 4: Sets the number of combined adjacent pixels in horizontal direction to 2 or 4.
      The BinningVertical parameter is set to the same value. Stereo ace cameras don't support specifying different binning factors in horizontal and vertical directions.

Example: Set the BinningHorizontal parameter to 2 to enable 2x2 binning. The BinningVertical parameter is set to 2 automatically.