2019 Innovators Awards: Silver-level honorees

Silver-level award honorees of our 2019 Innovators Awards Program are as follows (categories in parentheses):

Gardasoft (Cambridge, UK; www.gardasoft.com): Gardasoft Industrial OLED Controller (Lighting, lenses, and optics). The OC-G-5646-2-ET OLED Controller allows the generation of fast, accurate, and stable light pulses at the limit of OLED operation. Two independently configurable channels provide an output current from 100µA to 10A (pulsed). Pulse delay and pulse width are fully controllable in 1µs increments with timing repeatability of +/- 1µs.

IDS Imaging Development Systems (Obersulm, Germany; www.ids-imaging.com): IDS NXT rio & rome (Embedded vision). IDS NXT rio and rome (IP65/67) cameras are offered with a range of CMOS sensors, as well as industrial M12 connectors, C-Mount lens mount, GigE interface, Power over Ethernet, dual core CPU for onboard processing 1.3 GHz, FPGA, and HALCON runtime license. Additionally, a specially-developed artificial intelligence vision app turns the cameras into inference cameras with an integrated FPGA-based artificial neural networks accelerator.

Epson Robots (Carson, CA, USA; www.epson.com/robots): Epson Force Guide (Robotics). Force Guide is a force control system that is opening possibilities for robot automation in areas that were not possible before. Powered by proprietary Epson Quartz Technology, it enables Epson robots to detect six axes of force with precision down to 0.1 N. Driven by real-time servo system integration, Force Guide delivers fast, tactile feedback to guide robots for high-precision parts placement.

DeeDim Sensors (Chuncheon-si, South Korea; www.deedim.com): Surf.Finder (Vision systems). Surf.Finder is a surface inspection sensor that utilizes proprietary lighting and inspection algorithms to “measure” three surface characteristics that are key to identifying surface defects (inclination, roughness and reflectivity). By acquiring and utilizing these acquired data, Surf.Finder detects a diverse range of defects. Surf.Finder is also able to classify/differentiate types of defects and materials using the acquired data.

Allied Vision (Stadtroda, Germany; www.alliedvision.com): Alvium Camera Series (Cameras, visible AND embedded vision) Alvium cameras utilize Allied Vision’s own SoC (system-on-chip), ALVIUM Technology, which allows for image processing to be conducted in the camera and enables low power consumption, only using power for functions actively being used. Alvium offers three configurations: single board, partially enclosed/open housing, fully enclosed housing. Alvium cameras offer the latest CMOS image sensors and are available with MIPI CSI-2 or USB 3.0 interfaces.

Intercon 1 by Nortech (Merrifield, MN, USA; www.intercon-1.com): USB 3.1 Hybrid Active Optical Cable (Camera accessories/connectivity). Intercon 1's Hybrid Active Optical (HAO) supports USB3 plug and play capability, is available in lengths of up to 20 meters, and provides a rugged high-flex solution for the most demanding robotic applications. It also provides power, all within what looks to be a standard USB 3.1 cable.

OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA, USA; www.ovt.com): OS02C10 CMOS 1080p HDR image sensor (Image sensors). The OS02C10 image sensor from OmniVision Technologies, Inc. is a 2 MPixel sensor with a 2.9 µm pixel size, and a quantum efficiency of 60% at 850 µm and 40% at 940 µm. The sensor combines OmniVision’s ultra-low light (ULL) and Nyxel near-infrared (NIR) technologies to enable nighttime camera performance.

Theia Technologies (Wilsonville, OR, USA;www.theiatech.com): ML610M lens (Lighting, lenses, and optics). Theia's ML610M provides varifocal flexibility, 12-megapixel resolution in visible light as well as in the near infrared light spectrum, a compact lightweight design, and vibration resistance offered at an economical price. The lens features a 6-10 mm focal range providing from 51° up to 87° horizontal field of view on the 2/3" sensor. It comes in C mount and manual iris.

SUALAB (Seoul, South Korea; www.sualab.com): SuaKIT v2.0 (Software). SuaKIT v2.0 is a deep learning software library for machine vision specialized in finding defects on the surface of the product in various manufacturing industries. SuaKIT v2.0 is based on convolutional neural networks and contains three basic functions: Segmentation, classification, and detection.

Vancouver Computer Vision Ltd. (Vancouver, BC, Canada; www.vcvision.ca): VCortex (Software). The VCortex artificial intelligence-based system provides designers and system integrators a software-based solution for acquiring 3D imaging comparable to current 3D structured lighting systems. VCortex can work with two off-the-shelf RGB cameras and run on off-the-shelf graphics cards and reportedly also works with both texture-less and dark objects to create 3D images.

Critical Link (Syracuse, NY, USA; www.criticallink.com): MityCAM-C50000 (Embedded vision). Designed to be both an evaluation platform for the CMV50000 CMOS sensor from ams and an embedded imaging platform, the MityCAM-C50000 features an open architecture platform that allows for user programming, and a design that allows for hardware customization. Additionally, the camera provides multiple interfaces including USB3 Vision and HDMI preview as standard, with custom options to include CoaXPress, Camera Link, GigE Vision, and others.

Radiant Vision Systems (Redmond, WA, USA; www.radiantvisionsystems.com): NIR Intensity Lens (Cameras, non-visible). The NIR Intensity Lens is a turnkey camera/lens system capable of capturing an entire angular field of view of NIR emissions to +/-70° in a single image (a sampling size to 4 mm diameter), without moving parts. Using Fourier optics, the system’s lens maps each emission angle from an NIR light source onto the imaging system’s CCD to capture a 2D polar plot used to evaluate the complete scope of NIR emissions.

Teledyne Imaging (Waterloo, ON, Canada; www.teledyneimaging.com): Linea HS – CMOS TDI (Cameras, visible). The Linea HS camera is capable of a max line rate of 300 kHz and mono/HDR, color, and multifield imaging with various lighting configurations to improve detectability. The camera uses a Camera Link HS fiber interface to deliver the throughput of up to 8.4GByte/sec with a single cable and uses fiber-optic cables to reliably transmit data over a distance of up to 300M without a repeater.

Laser Components (Olching, Germany; www.lasercomponents.com): ALBALUX FM White Light Fiber-Coupled Module (Lighting, lenses, and optics). ALBALUX is a novel white light module with precise fiber beam delivery. The structured light source produces highly-directional and brilliant white light up to 100x the intensity of LED. Based on patented semipolar GaN laser diodes from SLD Laser, the sources use advanced phosphor technology providing minimal power consumption and a long lifetime with highly directional output.

Next page: Gold-level honorees

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