Three Machine Vision Trade Associations (AIA, EMVA, JIIA) Reach Agreement to Develop Global Industry Standards

(Ann Arbor, Michigan – November 3, 2009)  Leaders from the Automated Imaging Association (AIA), European Machine Vision Association (EMVA), and Japan Industrial Imaging Association (JIIA) today signed an agreement to cooperatively develop and promote global machine vision standards in Stuttgart Germany during the VISION trade fair.

Up to this point, each association has developed industry standards on its own; these legacy standards will remain in place. Going forward, if the associations agree on an issue needing standardization, a lead association will develop the standard and then the group will mutually promote the result as a global industry standard. If there is no consensus on the global need of a standard, each association retains the right to develop standards outside the cooperative group.

‘‘This accord will benefit machine vision users and suppliers alike by accelerating the pace of standards development, avoiding overlapping efforts, and creating more awareness of new standards,’‘ said Jeff Burnstein, President of AIA.

‘‘This new cooperation in the field of machine vision standards development will play a decisive role in promoting machine vision technology in all markets. It will increase the global information flow during the standards development process and help the standards to become established internationally,’‘ said Patrick Schwarzkopf, EMVA General Secretary.

‘‘We’ve worked diligently since JIIA first proposed this idea to prepare a global standardization process that will benefit the industry. It is especially rewarding that this agreement is now signed. We congratulate all of the machine vision players and look forward to further cooperation,’‘ said Shigeo Oka, Chairman of JIIA.

Machine vision, which accounts for more than $5 billion in annual sales worldwide, is a critical technology for users in industries such as automotive, electronics, food & beverage, lab automation, pharmaceuticals, and security. New markets are rapidly developing in areas such as medical imaging, energy, entertainment, and other non-manufacturing sectors. AIA, EMVA and JIIA believe that new standards can help stimulate the growth of machine vision sales.

Representatives from the three trade groups said they hope to add leaders from other associations in the future as new groups emerge to represent the growing machine vision industry in countries like China and India.

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November 3, 2009. Three Machine Vision Trade Associations Reach Agreement to Develop Global Industry Standards. Retrieved on November 13, 2009 from http://www.machinevisiononline.org/public/articles/articlesdetails.cfm?id=4138

Toshiba Imaging Systems Division Appoints New Sales Director

November 17, 2009 – Irvine, CA – Mr. Shinsaku Momoi, Vice President and General Manager of Toshiba America’s Imaging Systems Division (TAIS), announces the appointment of Mr. Paul Dempster to the position of Director, Medical Imaging and Factory Automation, effective immediately.

Mr. Dempster will oversee sales, business development, and marketing activities for Toshiba’s advanced video imaging technology and high resolution CMOS and CCD cameras which are used extensively in surgical imaging, endoscopy, factory automation, machine vision, non-destructive testing, and specialty high-definition video applications.

“Toshiba cameras and their exceptional image quality have long been used in many medical and industrial video applications, making the Toshiba brand highly respected in these markets. We are excited about the appointment of Mr. Dempster to our team and fully expect significant sales momentum and market share in the coming years,” said Mr. Momoi.

Mr. Dempster, a twenty year veteran of the diagnostic imaging community, has extensive experience in specialized medical and industrial video imaging applications, such as radiology, surgical imaging, and non-destructive testing. Most recently, Mr. Dempster was President of NAI Tech Products, a company he managed and developed from the ground up to become a leading global supplier of advanced video interface technology and digital media recording technology, used by many leading diagnostic imaging equipment manufacturers. Previously, he managed international sales for North American Imaging, a supplier of image intensifiers and medical imaging components.

For more information about Toshiba Imaging’s industrial cameras, please visit:
www.cameras.toshiba.com.

Toshiba Imaging Systems Division (Irvine, CA) is the premier supplier of high quality video
cameras for machine vision, R&D and scientific applications. Advanced video imaging technology and high resolution cameras such as Toshiba’s 3CCD color cameras and their remote head camera family has earned Toshiba America’s Imaging Systems Division the distinctive reputation for offering the most advanced imaging solutions to the industrial and scientific communities. Visit www.cameras.toshiba.com for more information.

PixeLINK offers line of machine vision and microscopy cameras designed to conform to user specifications

With over 200 industrial camera configurations to choose from, PixeLINK’s line of life sciences and machine vision cameras and software are designed for high-productivity image acquisition applications where detailed analysis is required.

PixeLINK, a leading manufacturer of  Firewire (IEEE1394), USB 2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) cameras, realizes the importance of flexibility when it comes to designing a line of cameras that will meet the specifications of user applications all over the world. From the beginning, they realized that most people needed more then just a “standard camera” to best meet the specifications of their application and with this in mind, created an array of camera options comprised of sensors, interfaces, and configurations to choose from. 

From personal experience, the people over at PixeLINK are great to work with and really welcome the challenge of designing custom camera solutions to meet the needs of their customers in the event that one of their 200+ configurations isn’t quite right.

In addition to cameras, you can tell that they also take pride in being able to offer a wide range of 3rd party software support and their dedication and enthusiasm is evident whenever you have them on the phone.

PixeLINK offers two SDKs, their signature μscope software for their microscopy cameras and their PL-SW-SDK OEM software for machine vision cameras. (A trial version of the μscope SDK is available on the PixeLINK website)

The PixeLINK μscope software features live measurement and overlay settings, which allow users to perform measurements on the live preview image, using the crosshair or grid masks to centre and count.

• The grid masks include calibration data.
• Calibration marker (scale bar) can be placed on the live preview image.
• The marker (scale bar) can also be automatically burned on each captured image.
• Any standard file-format image can be chosen to see it above live preview image.
• A time-lapse capture function supports TIF, BMP and JPG file formats.
• It also includes an auto-save feature.
• Video movie recordings can be saved in AVI, MPG, MPEG and MOV formats.
• The edge parts of captured image by low magnification frequently have background shading, which can be removed by the shading-correction function.
• The colour of the original image remains the same.
• A standard image is acquired from a blank space on the slide glass, or from an out of focus image in a metallurgical specimen.
• Such a standard image is used to correct the background shading of all other captured images.
• This software is also available as an upgrade to existing owners of Pixelink Capture SE.
• and more…

The PixeLINK PL-SW-SDK is their Software Development Kit geared towards machine vision applications which includes full application programing interface compatible with Visual Basic, Visual C, Visual C++, C# and VB.Net.

All in all, not only does PixeLINK offer really great, easy to use high performance camera solutions, but they do it with a smile which seems to be rare these days.  They have proven over and over again that they truly are commited to offering the best quality products in a time-to-market that works for their customers and the life sciences and machine vision markets are starting to take notice.

Sony Discontinues Black and White Machine Vision Camera Link Cameras (XCL-V500 and XCL-X700)

Effictive December 15, 2009, SONY has announced the discontinuation of their XCL-V500 and XCL-X700 Camera Link cameras.

The XCL-V500 and XCL-X700 are 1/3 type progressive scan, B/W, C-mount CCD machine vision cameras that capture high quality black and white images at a high frame rate in a lightweight body.

As of today there is no word on what the replacement models will be, information will be relayed as it is received.

Users of the Sony XCL-V500 or XCL-X700 are advised to contact their supplier ASAP as no more orders can be placed with Sony after December 15, 2009.

World’s First USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed USB) Product Gets Certified while Rumors Swirl About Delay of Release of World’s First USB-3.0 Capable Motherboard

In September, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) announced the first certified SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) commercially available product. The host controller from NEC Electronics Corporation will enable the SuperSpeed USB ecosystem and represents the first step to broad adoption among host and peripheral device manufacturers. NEC Electronics` µPD720200 host controller uses a PCI Express Gen 2 system interface bus, allowing designers to easily add up to two USB 3.0 interfaces to systems containing the PCI Express bus interface.

“The certification of NEC Electronics` host controller signals to the industry that the promise of SuperSpeed USB is now a reality,” said Jeff Ravencraft, president and chair of the USB-IF. “Not only does it mean host device manufacturers can build and certify products that can display the SuperSpeed USB logo, it also provides peripheral device manufacturers incentive to bring to market SuperSpeed USB-enabled devices like external storage drives, digital cameras and MP3 players, which will empower consumers with unmatched USB data transfer speeds.”

SuperSpeed USB brings significant power and performance enhancements to the popular USB standard, delivering data transfer rates up to ten times faster than Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0), with optimized power efficiency. The  specification was completed and made available to the industry in November 2008, and can be found at www.usb.org.

Analyst firm In-Stat projects that SuperSpeed USB will expand upon the broad market adoption of USB, which is the most successful interface in history with more than three billion devices shipped in 2008 alone. In-Stat predicts that SuperSpeed USB will make up approximately 30% of the USB market by 2013.

Originally slated to make its grand debut into the market place in Q1 of 2010, as of October 2009 there are rumblings throughout the industry that Intel has postponed the launch of their core-logic sets with SuperSpeed USB support until 2011.

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(2009, October). SuperSpeed USB from the USB-IF. http://www.usb.org/developers/ssusb

Bhushan, Amarendra, (2009, September 21). First SuperSpeed USB 3.0 product gets certified. CEOWorld Magazine. Retrieved on October 25, 2009 from http://ceoworld.biz/ceo/2009/09/21/first-superspeed-usb-3-0-product-gets-certified/

Shilov, Anton (2009, October 26). Intel Rumoured to Delay Implementation of USB 3.0. Retrieved on October 28, 2009 from http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20091026193759_Intel_Rumoured_to_Delay_Implementation_of_USB_3_0.html

2009 Nobel Prize in Physics co-awarded to inventors of CCD Sensor

Last month, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences made the annoucement that the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three people who have contributed groundbreaking achievements which helped to shape the foundations of today’s networked societies.

Charles K. Kao of Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, Harlow, UK, and Chinese University of Hong Kong was awarded “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication” and the other half was jointly awarded to Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith of Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA “for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor”.

This 1970 photo provided Tuesday by Alcatel-Lucent shows Bell Labs researchers Willard Boyle, left, and George Smith at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., with the charge-coupled device, which transforms patterns of light into useful digital information. (Alcatel-Lucent/Bell Labs/Associated Press)

In 1969 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device). The CCD technology makes use of the photoelectric effect, as theorized by Albert Einstein and for which he was awarded the 1921 year’s Nobel Prize. By this effect, light is transformed into electric signals. The challenge when designing an image sensor was to gather and read out the signals in a large number of image points, pixels, in a short time.

The CCD is the digital camera’s electronic eye. It revolutionized photography, as light could now be captured electronically instead of on film. The digital form facilitates the processing and distribution of these images. CCD technology is also used in many medical applications, e.g. imaging the inside of the human body, both for diagnostics and for microsurgery.

Digital photography has become an irreplaceable tool in many fields of research. The CCD has provided new possibilities to visualize the previously unseen. It has given us crystal clear images of distant places in our universe as well as the depths of the oceans.

Though the CCD sensor is most commonly used by the general public in their digital cameras, Boyle has said he is most proud of the telescopic applications it has in astronomy. The device is used to capture images from the Hubble space telescope and Mars Rover.

“We saw for the first time the surface of Mars,” Boyle told The Associated Press. “It wouldn’t have been possible without our invention.”

Boyle’s other inventions include the first continuously operating ruby laser and he also worked with NASA to provide technological support during the Apollo space program.

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(October 6, 2009). Canadian Scientist shares Nobel Physics prize, CBC News. Retrieved on October 22, 2009 from http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/10/06/nobel-prize-physics-kao-boyle-smith281.html?ref=rss