Tracking window versus active area (G2xxx)

Question

What is the tracking window and what is the difference between tracking window and active area?

Answer

Both active area and tracking window provide a way of improving scanning speed.

Active area refers to the user-defined region within the sensor's maximum field of view that is used for laser profiling. User can specify the X field of view, measurement range (Z field of view) and offsets in X and Z axis (X start and Z start). By default, the active area covers the sensor's entire field of view, but by reducing it, the sensor can operate at higher speeds.

Tracking window is useful in scenarios where the target can be moving up or down, typically used in road or web scanning applications where the target is a continuous surface. The tracking window is a user-defined area within the field of view that moves up and down as needed to make sure the sensor continues to scan the target.

The main difference is that the tracking window can automatically search the whole measurement range to find the target again, once the defined Search Threshold (the minimum percentage of points detected across the profile for the laser to be considered tracked) is reached. The drawback is a potential loss of scanning speed, once the tracking window is searching for a signal across the whole measurement range. With active area, however, the Gocator does not try to find the target once it is outside that defined area.