The coordinate system (COS) is a representation allowing the reading of the exact position of points or objects found in a geometric space. A coordinate system is a mathematical support used in many scientific and technical areas.

The best known example of coordinate system are the longitude and latitude degrees on the earth globe. These build together a geographical coordinate system, namely the Earth’s coordinate system. The coordinate in this case is the position of a point resulting from a coordinate pair. One part of this pair is located on the axis Y, the other on the axis X. The horizontal axis is referred to as the axis X and the vertical axis is called the axis Y. The intersection point of both axes is referred to as “origin” (COO) or “Zero point”. Further, this point is also referred to as “polar coordinate” (Pole). Along the axes, numbers are registered as units, i.e. positive to the top resp. to the right and negative to the bottom and to the left. The points to be determined or calculated are marked with an x at the intersection points of the determined or calculated X/Y values. Mathematical calculations in table form also refer to a coordinate system with high and right values written in the rows and columns of a table.

coordinate-systemBesides the simple 2D coordinate systems there are also 3D coordinate systems. In addition to axes X and Y, these include axis Z as well. In order to mark the points in space, you need to determine resp. to calculate three values.

Coordinate systems build the mail supporting structure for industrial image processing used for the orientation and control of all components involved in the process, such as camera systems, laser scanners or manipulators. Our SmartRay team offers you support for the adjustment of our products to the existing components in your production process.