Machine Vision

The Future of Manufacturing with Cobots

Collaborative robots (cobots) have a key role in current and future trends in industrial automation and production. Recent studies assume that the value of cobots in industrial automation will have reached US$ 7 billion by 2025. With the average retail price of a cobot being between US$ 15,000 and US$ 45,000, their use in this type of automation is also becoming increasingly ­feasible for industrial manufacturing applications in smaller production facilities and warehouses.

3D Metrology in Special Bicycle Workshop

The Dutch company Van Raam, based in Varsseveld, produces special bicycles that enable people with limited mobility to enjoy independent mobility. It manufactures its products according to the individual needs of the future owners. Many components are therefore manufactured as one-offs with different shapes and dimensions. With an automatic 3D scanning system, the engineers can efficiently meet the high safety and quality standards.

Tracking Down Human Actions with AI

What is a person doing right now and what conclusions can be drawn from it? This recognition and ­understanding of human actions is the main function of a new software library based on machine learning that researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing ­Engineering and Automation IPA have developed. Its main advantage is its easy adaptability to new ­application scenarios.

Seeing Is Believing: AI-Powered Camera Sensors

Visual data has grown volumetrically – artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming overwhelming amounts of video into timely and actionable intelligence at a rate like never before. AI-powered cameras at the edge enable smartphone, automotive, computing, industrial, and IoT devices to redefine the way they process, restore, enhance, analyze, search, and share video and images. On-device integrated AI-camera sensor co-processor chips with their built-in high-­processing power and memory ­allow the machine- and human-­vision applications to operate much faster, more energy-efficiently, cost-effectively, and securely without sending any data to remote servers.

Quantitative Chemical Imaging

While many modern quality assurance methods are insufficient, ­hyperspectral imaging can improve various aspects, and also facilitates recycling for the sake of environmental protection.

Intelligent Quality Assurance for Batteries

Because of their high-power ­density, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are subject to strict quality monitoring. Industrial computed tomography is increasingly being used to detect any defects before delivery or during production.

Release 4 of the EMVA Standard 1288 for Adequate Characterization of Modern Image Sensors and Cameras

The EMVA Standard 1288 for objective characterization of industrial cameras, which is successfully used worldwide, has a successor. The new Release 4.0 takes into account the rapid development of camera and image sensor technology. The release candidate was published on March 16, 2021 to come into effect three month later on June 16, 2021. A new module ‘Release 4.0 General’ has been added to characterize non-linear cameras or cameras with unknown pre-processing.

inspect award 2022: The nominees have been selected

The jury of the inspect award 2022 has nominated ten products in the categories "Vision" and "Automation + Control" and the voting runs from now until September 24, 2021. Vote and choose the best product in machine vision and optical metrology.

Jenoptik expands optics manufacturing capacities

As a result of the increasing demand for optics and sensors for the semiconductor industry, Jenoptik intends to expand its manufacturing capacities and construct a state-of-the-art production building and a new office complex at the Dresden site. To this end, the company has purchased a 24,000 square meter plot of land at Airportpark Dresden in May 2021.

Sincotron becomes distributor in Baltic Sea Region and Scandinavia for Omron's inspection systems

Omron and Sincotron become strategic distribution partners for the Baltic Sea region and Scandinavia.

Ametek Surface Vision appoints Mike Hevey as division vice president

Effective immediately, Mike Hevey will become divisional vice president and global business manager at Ametek Surface Vision.

Vision Components turns 25

Embedded vision specialist Vision Components celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2021. The company wants to celebrate this occasion with a webinar series and a hackathon under the motto: "This has to work better" - a mindset that Vision Components considers typical for itself.

Top Products in Machine Vision Wanted!

The application phase for the ­inspect award 2022 has begun. All machine vision and optical metrology companies are invited to submit their products. The deadline is May 14, 2021.

Change of Managing Director at Carl Zeiss Jena

On August 1, 2021, Dr. Stefan Häberle will become Chairman of the Management Board of Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH. He succeeds Hellmuth Aeugle, who is retiring. Häberle will thus lead the subsidiary of Carl Zeiss AG together with Dr. Bernhardt Ohnesorge.

Basler Confirms Strong Annual Result and Gives Positive Forecast for 2021

Basler AG has released the audited annual report for fiscal year 2020 today. In a declining market environment characterized by Covid-19 in 2020, the group‘s sales increased to Euro 170.5 million (previous year: Euro 162.0 million). Incoming orders amounted to Euro 181.6 million, and were significantly higher than the previous year’s level of Euro 166.5 million.

The Evolution of Time-of-Flight Sensors

Time-of-flight sensors have evolved significantly, and recent advances have both increased accuracy and reduced cost to the point where they are now suitable for widespread industrial use. Numerous recent innovations are also expanding the functionalities of these 3D sensors.

Vision Components presents the smallest embedded vision system

The system fits completely on a circuit board and is hardly larger than an image sensor module.

New 1GigE and 10GigE interface cards

Basler is launching seven more interface cards with GigE Vision interfaces.

Protective housing for Intel cameras

The successful Chameleon housing series for Intel RealSense cameras is now also available for the new D455 in addition to the D415, D435 and T265.

New global shutter AF zoom block cameras

Active Silicon introduces new autofocus zoom cameras

IRSX infrared camera series with smart technology

With its IRSX smart infrared camera series, AT-Automation Technology offers a solution for intelligent temperature image processing.

Visualization and Analysis of CT Data

Philipp Dobberkau speaks about the Visulisation and Analysis of CT Data.

The winners of the inspect award 2021

The winners of the inspect award have been announced! A jury consisting of Anne Wendel, machine vision specialist in the Robotics + Automation Association at VDMA, Thomas Lübkemeier, General Secretary of EMVA, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Heizmann, Professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Dr. Nick Leithold, until recently a cluster manager at Spectronet, as well as the readers of inspect and inspect online have decided.

Ximea and imec present a new generation of the xiSpec camera series

HB-25000-SB: 25 Megapixels, up to 98 frames per second

Scientific Imaging Capability and High Data Rates

The MX377 camera, the latest product from Ximea, features one of the largest sCMOS sensors available today.

Imaging Inside Out: SWIR for Apples

The food industry is changing. While it is still too early to measure the true impacts of COVID-19 on global trade and consumption, many other factors are driving changes to food production, particularly climate change and population growth. After all, it is vision technology that supports miscellaneous improvements: for example, it helps to ­deliver better apples.

10GigE Vision - A New Era for Image Processing

The Ethernet-based interface 10GigE Vision has the potential to lead the image processing industry into a new era. This new technology offers a number of innovative ­features for use in a wide variety of areas.

Aggregation in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Product Traceability Via Track & Trace

Series of Lenses Developed for Use With 3.45μm Resolution 2/3” (IMX264) Cameras

High Lateral Resolution and Wide Measurement Range for Structures with Nanometer Dimensions

Automation of Hot Forming and Laser Cutting Processes

Reduce Waste with Hyperspectral Imaging

Capturing the Scene Perfectly

How Protective Windows and Coatings Influence Performance of Machine Vision Systems