Having insight through video data could be a game changer for your application, whether it’s something military, medical, or industrial. We’re not talking “nanny-cam” here. We’re talking about mission-critical applications, where lives or millions of dollars could be at stake. In all three application areas mentioned, having “visibility” could improve usability, productivity, and intelligence while lowering the system’s total cost of ownership and reducing risk by allowing for the use of standard off-the-shelf cameras and other hardware.

In the medical space, an operating room can be completely wired with vision for patient (and doctor) monitoring and diagnostics. In the industrial sector, manufacturing facilities can gain from having visibility into the entire process.

One vendor turning these ideas into reality is Pleora, who supplies external frame grabbers and embedded video interface hardware for system and camera makers. The company claims to have pioneered the delivery of video over Gigabit Ethernet, while offering leading-edge products for USB 3.0 and wireless interfaces.

The hardware-software combo offered Pleora convert potentially unwieldy legacy video interfaces into standards-compliant interfaces that can be more easily handled by current hardware. At that point, the host computer can analyze, display, and/or record the information. Pleora’s frame grabbers can capture and convert video, integrate existing cameras into a common interface environment, and enable the use of embedded processors, laptops, and tablets.

The embedded hardware, which is available in the form of compact, high-performance boards (or comprehensive reference designs, if that’s your preference), helps to rapidly integrate video interfaces with sensor electronics in cameras, X-ray detectors, and other imaging devices.