Basic Concepts

MERLIC Is Easy to Use

No Programming

There is absolutely no classical programming involved when using MERLIC. Create your machine vision solution simply by setting up MERLIC tools A MERLIC tool is a modular unit with a specific functionality. It can be used to solve a specific task of an image processing application, to define conditions and expressions, or to communicate via various devices. Tools build the elementary part of a MERLIC Vision App. in the MERLIC Creator. For more information, see Creating a MERLIC Vision App.

Variety of Tools

For every step of your machine vision application, MERLIC provides the right tool. Tools are named self-explanatory and organized clearly in the Tool Library. You would like to count objects in an image? Look under the category "Processing → Counting" and choose the tool that suits your needs. For more information and detailed descriptions to help you find the necessary tool, see MERLIC Tool Reference.

Integrated Help

Each tool comes with an integrated help text, called Quick Info The Quick Info is a short description of a MERLIC tool. It is displayed directly in the Tool Board and describes how to use the respective tools., that describes how to use the tool. Additionally, MERLIC provides tool tips that show up over buttons and controls after a few seconds of mouse-over. For more information, see Quick Info.

MERLIC Works for You

Automatic Tool Connection

Whenever you insert a tool with an image parameter into the application, MERLIC analyzes the data flow to find appropriate connections between tools. Image parameters of the new tool are automatically connected in a meaningful way to an image result of a previous tool.

Interactive Assistance

MERLIC provides an interactive assistance, easyTouch and easyTouch+, that can be used to estimate parameter values depending on the current mouse position. Move the mouse over the image and MERLIC immediately visualizes the estimated results for your current mouse position. The desired selection can be confirmed via a mouse click. For more information, see easyTouch and easyTouch+.

Parallel Processing

MERLIC allows the parallel processing of tools to perform multiple tasks at the same time. This allows you to perform multiple image processing tasks in parallel, e.g., independent inspection with multiple cameras.

Integration into Manufacturing Processes

MERLIC provides a process integration MERLIC can be used in machine vision systems that are integrated in a manufacturing machine. The machine controller, e.g., a programmable logic controller (PLC), must be able to control an integrated vision system, to monitor the execution, and to query the results. Therefore, MERLIC provides a process integration mode to enable the communication with a machine controller. The process integration mode can be started with the application "MERLIC RTE" that is provided with the MERLIC installation. mode that enables you to control the execution of MERLIC via a programmable logic controller (PLC). For the communication with the PLC, you can use any Hilscher PCI Card of the cifX PC card family, Digital I/O devices, and camera devices with GenICam compliant Digital I/O channels.