The image acquisition and processing system used in the present study consist of a high-resolution 3-CCD video camera (SONY XC-003P) with 16 mm focal length lens (VCL-16WM), a 24-bit true color frame grabber board (Imaging Technology Inc., IC-PCI) and a high speed PC. The model XC-003P (Figure 6.5) is a 3-CCD RGB color camera module designed primarily for process control and image processing applications.

Figure 6.3 High resolution 3-CCD camera (SONY XC-003P)

Camera XC-003P works in accordance with EIA video norm of NTSC (National Television Systems Committee of the Electronic Industries Association) which has prepared the TV standard for the USA , Canada , Japan , Central America , half of the Caribbean and half of South America ). When referring to NTSC video what is normally meant is 525 line 60 Hz. PAL (phase alternation line) is the TV format used in most of Western Europe , Australia and other countries including India. When referring to PAL video, what is normally meant is the 625 line 50 Hz video. The new 3 CCD C-mount optical prism block achieves three times higher resolution compared to a 1-CCD system. Moreover, the standard C-mount lens system allows the use a wide variety of lenses.