HSCAM NANO

A Vision System on Chip (VSoC) camera that acquires and processes images directly on the sensor — built on chip technology invented by Fraunhofer IIS. Currently in prototyping and evaluation.

Processing frequency: 13 kHz full-frame
Resolution: 2 × 1,008 × 1,008 px
On-chip latency: < 1 ms
Power consumption: ~1 W total

Where this stands today

HSCAM NANO is not yet a shipping, orderable product. The photography on this page shows real prototype and chip-level hardware, not a finished production unit.

On-sensor processing

The World’s Smallest High Speed Camera

Acquires and processes image data as fast as a high-speed camera, but will not output the data as fast.

The underlying VSoC chip technology was invented by Fraunhofer IIS. HSCAM designs the camera and system around it.

Macro photograph of the VSoC image sensor die mounted on a printed circuit board.

Capabilities

What runs on the chip

On-sensor processing

3 independent ASIPs (SIMD, LCTRL, GLB) govern acquisition, analog processing and system comms directly on-chip.

Edge AI

Integrated microcontroller and NPU run neural-network inference on-chip, with no host required.

Minimal-bandwidth output

The camera can output object coordinates only, instead of full frames.

Dynamic ROI

Region of interest is selectable on-chip.

Image-based triggering

Triggering can be derived directly from image content on-chip.

Application example — lab test setup

3D scanning via laser light-section

In this bench setup, a line laser projects a straight line across the object; a NANO prototype, mounted on the optical rail above it, captures how that line deforms across the surface. On-chip processing can turn that deformation directly into a height profile — a classic laser-triangulation (light-section) approach to 3D scanning, tested here at prototype stage.

This is HSCAM’s own lab rig, illustrating a candidate use of the technology at prototype stage — no scan result or product claim is made here.

NANO prototype and line-laser projector on an optical rail, aimed down at a test object on an optical bench.

Close-up of the line-laser projector and NANO prototype camera mounted above the test object.

Output

Coordinates and events, not necessarily full frames

NANO can report just what changed, at rates well beyond what a full frame stream would allow over a simple link.

Field	Description	Rate
Object X, Y	Center-of-gravity coordinates	10 kHz
Object size	Bounding box dimensions	10 kHz
Detection flag	Object present / absent	10 kHz
ROI trigger	Region-of-interest events	Event-based

The sensor's stated processing frequency is 13 kHz; the output rate above is 10 kHz. That difference is present in the source material and unresolved — it is not explained further there.

Interfaces

UART — serial coordinate stream, compatible with Arduino / STM32 / ESP32, no drivers required
USB — full configuration access and image streaming, with Python & C++ APIs (Windows/Linux)
On-chip — LVDS, SPI, JTAG, 16× GPIO

Close-up of the HSCAM NANO prototype's lens mount and cable connectors on a lab bench.

Specifications

Full specifications

All figures are chip-level, from HSCAM's NANO technology overview.

HSCAM NANO specifications
Specification	Value
Processing frequency	13 kHz full-frame
Resolution	2 × 1,008 × 1,008 px
On-chip latency	< 1 ms
Power consumption	~1 W total
Sensor technology	180 nm CIS (monolithic)
Chip size	11 × 13 mm (143 mm²)
Pixel size	8.75 × 8.75 µm
Processing power	117 GOps @ 60 MHz
PE architecture	1,024 × 8-bit SIMD processing elements
Dynamic range	59.9 dB
On-chip memory	128 kB DRAM
Digital interfaces	LVDS (500 MHz DDR), SPI, JTAG, 16× GPIO

Elsewhere on the site

Product — shipping today

HSCAM STREAMER 1M13

Technology

Compression & on-sensor processing, on the homepage

Interested in HSCAM NANO?

NANO is in prototyping and evaluation. Tell us your application and we'll follow up as it moves toward availability.

HSCAM GmbH · Angerstraße 40–42, Haus B · 04177 Leipzig, Germany
contact@hscam.com · www.hscam.com