Vision app repository now available for cameras

Mimicking the highly-successful app store from Apple, the machine-vision company Tordivel (Oslo, Norway) has launched a commercial machine vision app repository to enable OEMs to build dedicated vision applications using smart cameras from Sony Europe’s Image Sensing Solutions (Stuttgart, Germany) division.

The app repository is located at http://www.scorpionvisionappsforsony.com. It is being populated with a growing number of apps. Many of the apps will be free to download.

The first apps created are for component alignment, barcode scanning, color identification and object location; these will be free to download and have been created to run on the smart camera from Sony. Tordivel will continue to add between two and four apps per month throughout 2012.

The app repository is also open to third party application developers seeking to expand their user base for both niche and common usage apps. Apps can be created using Tordivel’s Scorpion Vision 9.1 software development kit.

As part of the launch program, Sony will supply its smart cameras with the bar code reading app pre-loaded.

OEMs with existing cameras will require a flash card upgrade to download apps, and Sony will make its smart cameras available with this Compact Flash Card later in Q1 2012. More details and links can be found in Sony Image Sensing Solutions Resource Center.

Thor Vollset, CEO of Tordivel said, “To enable as many OEMs as possible to benefit, it was very important that this was created as an open platform. Machine vision is being adopted by a wider range of companies to help in manufacturing or being integrated their products. Many of these solutions only require one or two specific image processing features. With the Scorpion Vision apps model these solutions can be implemented quickly and inexpensively.”

-- by Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design