Machine vision, simply put, is using machines to replace human eyes for measurement and judgment. With the development of embedded processor technology, the processing power of vision processing hardware has been increasing, leading to a rise in the importance of software. Given a certain image quality, the quality of the processing software and image algorithms directly determines the correctness of the judgment, making vision software crucial in the entire system.
Currently, color vision systems, 3D monitoring effects, embedded technology, hardware and software integration, and solutions are the latest technological developments in machine vision. Although machine vision has undergone some revolutionary changes in the past few years, the field of color image processing has developed at a relatively slow pace. One major reason is that solving a machine vision problem with color always requires more cost and processing power than an equivalent grayscale image solution. However, this situation has changed somewhat in recent years.
With the application of vision in various industries such as semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and textiles, ordinary grayscale vision systems can no longer meet user needs. In some applications, color machine vision functions are required, such as color pattern matching, color spectrum analysis, print color detection, and packaging box recognition.
To address the needs of color vision applications, NI offers both hardware and software solutions. On the hardware side, NI supports thousands of cameras from different manufacturers, capable of capturing color images from various analog cameras, 1394 cameras, or CameraLink cameras.
Cognex recently launched three color vision systems in its In-SightMicro product line. Among them, the new In-Sight1403C is a 2-megapixel (1600×1200 resolution) system capable of high-resolution inspection for a variety of color applications.
Color vision systems have always been a focus of ADLINK's R&D. However, ADLINK believes that color applications should only be used in situations suitable for color applications. There is no inherent superiority or inferiority between color and grayscale vision systems; it's simply a matter of which is more suitable. Therefore, the development of color vision systems was somewhat limited in previous years due to the relatively complex imaging system, the large amount of data (information), and the high requirements for image processing algorithms. While color vision systems have not seen as many successful applications as grayscale analysis systems, they are poised for rapid development in the coming years after overcoming technological bottlenecks.
High-performance, cost-effective color industrial cameras, image acquisition cards, industrial lenses, and vision light sources needed to build a color vision system can all be found on the China Machine Vision Mall. This simplifies the procurement and selection process, allows for rapid system hardware assembly, and enables more time to be devoted to the software development of the color vision system.
With the further development of China's manufacturing industry, the demand for machine vision has also increased. This is reflected not only in the market size but also in users' requirements for the quality and performance of machine vision products. Currently, machine vision is gradually evolving from simply collecting, analyzing, and transmitting data to determine actions, towards a more open approach. This trend also indicates that machine vision will further integrate with color vision systems.
