At the 7th European Machine Vision Forum (EMVF), the topics discussed included eye tracking in industrial assembly situations, the use of brain activity as an additional input modality, user interfaces for vision systems, and special features of mobile systems.

In addition, a wide variety of approaches, methods and applications of machine vision technology were also presented at this year's forum in the context of the focus topic “Machine Vision for Human-Machine Interaction”. Topics that could be put together with numerous submissions for their own sessions were the image-based 3D detection of objects and the environment; machine vision on mobile and embedded systems; image recording methods ( e.g. with polarimetry and multispectral image acquisition); and machine learning, with a focus on synthetically generated training data and a keynote speech on the “intelligence” of AI systems.

Key topics of the keynotes

All three keynote speeches addressed issues that are the subject of lively discussion in the industry. Jean-Pierre Chambard from Holo3, for example, dealt with the transfer of research results into industrial application. His bottom line: In addition to the scientific basis, practical implementation is also needed before good ideas can be implemented in industry, not least with regard to user requirements.

Maria-Theresa Licka (Maiwy and the University of Kaiserslautern) focused her keynote on image processing solutions on mobile devices. Particularly when it comes to applications that rely on machine learning, solutions are needed that take into account the constraints of mobile systems; this was the tenor of her presentation.

The evaluation of endoscopic image data in medical diagnostics was the topic of the keynote speech by Christian Daul (Université de Lorraine/Cran). 2D and 3D reconstruction from image data, using the example of an endoscopic examination of the stomach, improves the interpretability for medical diagnosis by providing a more complete image of the organ. This combination of machine vision and human expertise results in a significant increase in performance.

Accompanying exhibition and local machine vision players

The lectures were complemented by an accompanying exhibition in which companies and institutions presented new hardware, methods and systems. The local machine vision community was also represented with lectures and short presentations, illustrating how machine vision is an important part of measurement and automation technology in companies and institutions in the Mulhouse area. The venue at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs Sud-Alsace (Ensisa) on the campus of the Université de Haute Alsace (UHA) provided the perfect setting for this, which could be seen during a tour of the laboratories.