Today, artificial intelligence is hailed as a new engine for economic development, and vision technology, as one of the core technologies of artificial intelligence, has indeed become incredibly popular. It's so popular that any company related to industrial automation that doesn't have some vision technology or products is "ashamed to even greet others."
However, alongside the booming market, there is a stark contrast: fierce price competition in the domestic industrial camera market, the arduous work of those working in the machine vision industry, especially in technology-driven vision companies where engineers are either at customer sites debugging or on their way to customers for debugging. Is such effort truly commensurate with the rewards? If so, working in the machine vision industry is truly a case of "I guessed the beginning, but I didn't expect this ending." Of course, it's too early to say the ending; it's still going strong!
The market is booming, but as Marx taught us long ago, we must "see through the phenomena to the essence." With such a hot market, we must consider why the price competition in the industrial camera market is so fierce. The price of a simple 5 million RMB CCD camera has fallen by more than 50% compared to five years ago—it's appalling! If industrial cameras truly have value for high-end manufacturing, then besides this brutal price competition, what other practical uses do they offer?
To clarify this issue, we must first define two fundamental concepts: what is machine vision, and what is an industrial camera. Clear definitions are essential to avoid unnecessary detours. After reviewing numerous documents, I found AIA's definition to be relatively concise and clear. Firstly, machine vision (MV) refers to "the provision of operational guidance for devices based on image acquisition and processing functions for all industrial and non-industrial applications combining hardware and software." An industrial camera, on the other hand, refers to "an imaging device for a machine vision system, which includes an imaging sensor chip and various electronically based functions that convert visual images of objects into electronic pulses." (Sorry, my translation skills are limited; please bear with it for now.)
Upon closer examination, these two concepts actually convey a very important message: machine vision is ultimately an application-driven technology, meaning it is driven by market and application demands. Machine vision itself requires a complex hardware and software system for support, including specific customer application requirements, software, industrial computers, industrial cameras, lenses, and light sources. Please refer to Figure 1, a schematic diagram from Baumer.
This diagram conveys two messages. First, the core value of industrial cameras lies not in their low price or how much money they save for customers, but in the utility and value they bring to solving customer problems and applications, serving as the hardware carrier for key imaging technologies and image processing software. Second, in the industrial camera sales and marketing field, focusing solely on price competition without understanding customer needs is irresponsible, at least failing to maximize customer benefits. So, where does the utility of an industrial camera most directly manifest itself? Excellent image quality? Superior signal-to-noise ratio? High frame rate and high resolution? Actually, for industrial cameras, these are not the most important factors; otherwise, they wouldn't qualify as industrial cameras. The most important thing, and quite simply, is stability! Stability! Stability! Sorry, I'm saying it three times because it's important. Of course, to achieve this, companies must avoid cutthroat competition and have the capability and financial resources to continuously invest in product research and development.
Why do we say this? To put it simply, if an industrial camera can work continuously for 24 hours a day without basic problems such as disconnection or frame loss, and can be perfectly compatible with other electrical equipment on site, it will undoubtedly greatly improve the inspection efficiency of machine vision. Engineers will save a lot of time to use for more valuable technology development, instead of "always on the road". When machine vision is efficiently transformed into real productivity, "artificial intelligence becoming a new engine for economic development" will no longer be a dream.
Of course, as an application-driven product, it must be acknowledged that the price elasticity of demand for industrial cameras is very high in certain industries. If there are not many requirements for the frame rate and stability of industrial cameras, and image noise does not affect the inspection to a greater or lesser extent, then this industry will inevitably become a red ocean, with a large number of homogeneous substitutes appearing. Users will be more concerned with how much money they can save and short-term quick profits, and the final result will inevitably be price convergence. If you want to enter these industries, then sorry, only those who can afford it can participate.
However, returning to the essential definition of industrial cameras and machine vision, we find that some industries recognize the value of industrial cameras as a carrier of technology and applications, and are willing to pay higher prices for their utility—that is, the satisfaction derived from consuming such goods and services. As industrial camera providers, we must also consider how to maximize the utility of industrial cameras in the industrial environment to gain customer recognition. Let's take Baumer industrial cameras as an example, without being modest. We are constantly striving for excellence (we're referring to mountaineering; Baumer's flag has reached the 8163-meter summit of Manaslu). In terms of the product itself, Baumer industrial cameras currently use mainstream CMOS sensors, but we continuously adapt our product features and functional development to better meet customer needs and deeply understand their requirements for industrial applications. Regarding industrial environments, we've identified several key characteristics: 1. Complex environments: Many environments require consideration of how industrial cameras can operate stably under conditions of humidity, dust, and strong electromagnetic interference. 2. Industrial equipment requires consideration of various application requirements, including camera power supply, compatibility with other devices (such as PLCs and PCs), camera interface, and compatibility with client software. 3. The camera's operating mode needs to take into account the specific state of the object being detected, especially a deep understanding of the customer's true needs behind the detection requirements, how to control the camera for high-speed motion shooting, and how to achieve stable and trouble-free shooting.
Firstly, regarding protection levels, Baumer industrial cameras have specifically developed IP67 wide-temperature cameras for customer applications, capable of operating in temperatures ranging from -40 °C to +70 °C. Furthermore, the cameras integrate a temperature sensor for real-time temperature monitoring. In addition, this series of cameras has been specially tested for harsh field environments, withstanding up to 100g of impact and 10g of vibration – truly a testament to their resilience.
Secondly, for industrial field power supply, Baumer adopts a wide voltage supply method of 8-30V DC, and the camera trigger uses a debouncer and other filtering designs to ensure that the camera can stably receive trigger signals without the interference of the field. In order to ensure the temperature stability of high-precision measurement data, all Baumer camera sensors are encapsulated on heat sinks. Good heat dissipation can ensure low chip noise and good control of data time drift.
Furthermore, for particularly demanding inspection requirements, such as the Sony Pregius chip, Baumer has released a series of products with an exposure time as short as 1µs, ensuring clarity and contrast when photographing fast-moving objects. For large data transmission, Baumer has developed a 12-megapixel camera based on a 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GigE) interface, achieving a maximum frame rate of 335fps, with 2GB of internal storage. For the booming 3D applications, Baumer has also launched a 3D camera based on FPGA programming, featuring a dedicated pre-installed program for laser triangulation. This allows for sub-pixel precision focusing of the laser line within the camera, enabling the transmission of only contour data and significantly reducing the amount of data that needs to be transmitted. With a maximum resolution of 12 megapixels, a distribution rate exceeding 2.5 kHz at 4K linewidth and 128 lines, the camera reliably identifies even the finest deviations, even at high processing speeds.
In short, everything we do is simply to maximize the effectiveness of industrial cameras in machine vision. On a grander scale, we aim to contribute our modest efforts to China's advanced manufacturing; on a smaller scale, we hope that Baumer industrial cameras will bring users a pleasant experience, freeing engineers from wasting time and energy due to hardware instability—all of which represent significant costs for businesses. Therefore, we believe that one day, our beloved vision engineers will no longer have to work so hard, hearing less of the hum of industrial control computers and sweating profusely under the dim light of screens; and when birds fly into the forest, they will look up to see the smoke rising from their homes.
