Every March, Vision Systems Design publishes a Buyers Guide for developers of machine-vision and image-processing systems. This year, the Buyers Guide contains information on more than 700 manufacturers of vision products, along with 300 vision-system integrators and 100 manufacturers representatives. We have again provided a directory that lists system integrators and system-integration services, which will prove especially useful to OEM vendors and end users who want to commission a system integrator to develop an automated machine-vision system. The Guide contains three sections: a Product Guide, a Vendor Directory, and a System-Integrator Directory. While the table of contents provides a general guide to these sections, the Product Index gives a more detailed resource for the more than 50 product categories.
The printed version is complemented by a searchable digital version that can be found in the VSD Product Center of our Web site (www.vision-systems.com). In the Product Center you will also find the Industrial Camera Directory, Product Showcase, and daily updates of new product announcements. You can register to receive our monthly products e-newsletter, which highlights the most recent developments in machine-vision components.
Innovation, not imitation
This issue also includes a series of articles that discuss emerging technology and applications of machine vision. In one article editor Andy Wilson describes how structured light sources and advanced algorithms have been combined by AQSENSE to improve the accuracy of 3-D modeling. In a second, he discusses how novel lenses and optics are speeding development of light-field cameras.
Other articles describe how OEM components are being used to develop novel applications. Contrast the approaches taken by Reiner Wiedemann at Stemmer Imaging, who describes a PC-based system for inspecting pens, to an approach described by contributing editor Winn Hardin for a plant-spraying system based on a smart camera. And, Bob Grietens of XenICs and Sander Smits at the University of Twente describe how a hyperspectral microscopy system can be used to inspect LEDs.
In developing these applications, system integrators must be fully aware of the OEM components that are now available from the hundreds of suppliers listed in this Buyers Guide. Armed with this knowledge, developers can make more informed decisions about the correct components needed in their designs. By showing how such components are used in machine-vision applications, we will keep you informed of how others have developed systems using them. As for new and innovative products, we will continue to ensure that information about them is widely distributed, both in print and online. Although the Vision Systems Design Buyers Guide is published once a year, our coverage of vision systems is continuous.
W. Conard Holton, Editor in Chief
[email protected]