Stories to Tell

Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho said, “There are only two stories in the world. There is the voyage of discovery—and a stranger comes to town.” Given that his novel The Alchemist is one of the most translated books in the world, he may know something about the nature of story telling.

At Vision Systems Design, one of these stories of discovery is presented in our annual Worldwide Industrial Camera Directory, which begins after page 14 in this issue. In the directory, cameras from more than 180 manufacturers and dozens of distributors in North America, Europe, and Asia are listed, identified by manufacturer, product name, sensor type, scan type, resolution, spectrum, interface, and data rate. To widely disseminate this information, the directory will be distributed at numerous trade shows and also be available on our web site at www.vision-systems.com.

However, choosing the best type of camera for a specific machine-vision system requires more than understanding camera specifications. Successful integration must also include knowledge of topics such as lighting, optics, and software. To do so, system integrators can learn from strangers that have already accomplished such tasks.

For this reason, the technical articles included in this year’s Camera Directory show how to specify lenses for megapixel cameras, improve color imaging with better measurement techniques, and accurately characterize image quality.

Brave new world

In his exploration of the latest trends in machine vision, for example, editor Andy Wilson reviews the subject of vision-guided robotics, which is finding an increased role in industrial automation. Robots, combined with vision-based systems in various configurations, are being used in designs for applications such as food sorting, bin-picking, and pipe inspection.

These vision systems are not only applied to automate industrial processes. In an article about the strange new world of biomedical and pharmaceutical applications, Wilson explores how vision is being used to inspect inhalers for pulmonary drug delivery. Indeed, image analysis is now enabling pharmaceutical manufacturers to determine the amount, rate, and distribution of drug particle delivery to optimize future inhaler designs. In a final article, Wilson describes new camera interfaces and sheds light on how next-generation standards for Camera Link and USB may impact future machine-vision system designs.

Alchemy is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom. Like alchemy, an understanding of how to develop machine-vision systems can best be achieved by studying the products, technologies, and experiences of others. We hope you find the Camera Directory and the articles in this issue to be a valuable reference for this voyage of discovery.