Point Grey Demos World’s First USB 3.0 Webcam [Streaming, Uncompressed High-Definition 1080p 60fps Video, High-Performance Sony CMOS Image Sensor]

USB is everywhere. It’s hard to remember a time when the ubiquitous technology wasn’t at the business end of just about ever piece of computer peripheral equipment on the market. While the current standard, USB 2.0, has been around for nearly a decade (it was standardized back in 2001) it seems that it may finally be nearing the end of its useful life. We want faster and it looks like we are getting closer than ever to achieving that goal with USB 3.0. Need proof that the new standard may be right around the corner? How about the fact that digital camera technology masters Point Grey have already demonstrated the world’s first USB 3.0 webcam?

The new USB 3.0 standard has been in development for nearly a year and its transfer speeds, upwards of 10x faster than our old friend USB 2.0, are definitely set to change the course of computer peripheral development, as we know it. At this year’s Intel Developers Forum, Point Grey unveiled a working prototype of the world’s first high-speed webcam built using the new USB 3.0 standard. Using the super-fast data transmission speeds of the new USB 3.0 standard, the webcam was able to stream crystal-clear 1080p high-definition video at 60 frames per second onto a 42-in HD monitor.

The camera itself is a melding of several existing digital video camera technologies including a 3MP Sony IMX036 CMOS image sensor and Point Grey’s own software driver, which provides low-level control of the camera via the USB 3.0 bus. The camera was connected to a USB 3.0 interface card on the host side, which was powered by the FL1000, a PCI Express to SuperSpeed USB Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) host controller chip from Fresco Logic. The host PC used an Intel i5-based P7P55D motherboard from ASUS. There are only two words that come to mind here, blazing fast.

Vlad Tucakov, Director of Sales and Marketing at Point Grey states, “One of the potential benefits of the increased bandwidth of USB 3.0 is that it allows the main processor to handle compression. This means that different types of compression can be used for different applications and that some applications, like face recognition, can work on uncompressed video data for increased performance. We certainly see USB 3.0 as a key interface technology for machine and computer vision, and one we plan to integrate into future Point Grey imaging products.”

Until the USB 3.0 standard becomes, well, standard, you’re going to have to wait to get your hands on an actual consumer copy of this type of technology. In the mean time, you can get a glimpse of the world’s first SuperSpeed USB camera from September 22-24 at IDF in the Fresco Logic booth #731 inside the USB-IF Community. The demonstration will also be highlighted on September 24th during the “USB 3.0 Architecture and PHY Interface (PIPE) Specification” Session – part of the SuperSpeed USB Technology Track at IDF. For additional information you might want to pay a visit to www.ptgrey.com.