What is the maximum frame rate of a Bumblebee?

Last Revision Date: 6/23/2015

This article describes the maximum frame rate of the Bumblebee stereo vision system, and the factors that may affect this frame rate.

The frame rates shown are for both the left and right cameras. Although the demo programs only show the images from one side of the camera, both sides are actually transmitting simultaneously.

It is not possible for the Bumblebee to output images any faster than the rates described above, and the Bumblebee does not implement any region of interest or pixel binning functionality.

Effect of Stereo and Color Processing on Frame Rate

The frame rate that is reported in the lower left status bar of the demo program is the frame rate after image processing. By default, the demo program performs stereo processing on the received images. When doing stereo processing on the images, the effective frame rate displayed in the window's status bar may be slower, depending on the speed of the user’s system and the stereo processing settings being used. The camera continues to deliver images to the PC at the full frame rate, and then the PC performs stereo processing.

Modifying Stereo Processing

To disable stereo processing, click the Stereo Parameters button, and uncheck Stereo. The frame rate displayed in the status bar should increase.

If disparity images are not being produced at a high enough frame rate, modifying the processing resolution and disparity range has the largest effects. To modify the processing resolution, set a lower output resolution using the digiclopsSetImageResolution() or triclopsSetResolution() functions. Note that this reduced resolution only increases the speed of the color and stereo processing. It does not affect the size of the actual images or the actual output frame rate being sent by the camera.

Changing Camera Output Frame Rate

To change the frame rate at which the camera is sending images, open the Camera Control dialog, click the Camera Settings tab, uncheck the “Auto” box for the frame rate slider, and reduce your frame rate.

This effectively interfaces to the CURRENT_FRAME_RATE register 0x600 on the camera, which is described fully in the Digital Camera Register Reference.