Throughout the course of The Vision Show 2016, which was held in Boston from May 3-5, I conducted numerous interviews with machine vision and imaging veterans from various markets. One of the conversations I had at the show was with Jeff Burnstein, AIA President, where we discussed the latest with the AIA, trends in the industry, and future growth areas.
We began by talking about the latest happenings with the AIA, which Burnstein said involved the association’s Certified Vision Professional training. Specifically, the AIA is now offering Certified Vision Professional Advanced Courses via online video.
"People can now watch and prepare for an exam online, where previously this could only be done at shows," he said. "Companies can now license it and watch in house. This really changes the dissemination of the advanced-level training and makes it a lot easier for vision companies to gain the necessary training to become a Certified Systems Integrator."
Burnstein also noted the AIA’s growing Life Sciences initiative, which was a main talking point at the show.
Among the other topics we discussed was the growth of the show. Burstein noted that this year’s event was the largest to date, which was due to a number of reasons. These included the continuing interest in imaging and machine vision as a critical technology, the proliferation of vision beyond just the factory floor, and the addition of the collaborative robots exhibit, which draws people to see how vision works with collaborative robots.
During our talk, we also discussed potential applications that could be growth areas for the industry in the coming years. Burnstein noted that warehousing and distribution could potentially have a significant impact on the industry, as the association heard a number of success stories at the Automate / ProMat show. He identified vision-guided collaborative robots—a topic that received its own area on the show floor this year—as the main technology that could be utilized in such applications.
Lastly, when I asked Burnstein about where the industry could be headed in the next few years, he provided an outlook laden with optimism.
"Vision is becoming more omnipresent in cars, drones, cell phones, and more," he said. "The explosion of places where you could put a camera is almost unimaginable."
View more information on the AIA.
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