Vision in Your Pocket: Exploring the Future of Handheld Machine Vision
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The next step in making vision smarter
Machine vision has never stood still. From complex inspection platforms to barcode verification and AI-powered analytics, Fisher Smith continues to push what’s possible.
Now, we’re taking that expertise and asking: what if you could carry it in your pocket?
Machine vision has always been about precision - high-performance cameras, stable lighting, and tightly controlled environments. But what if you could take that same capability anywhere?
At Fisher Smith, we’re exploring how to make vision more flexible and accessible. The idea is simple: a portable, app-based vision tool that lets users capture an image on a handheld device such as a mobile phone or tablet and instantly verify results through a web-based platform.
This concept opens a new space for vision-driven verification in situations where traditional systems are too large, costly or static.
From fixed systems to flexible verification
Traditional vision systems are perfect for automated production lines and high-volume inspection. But there’s a growing need for quick, portable checks in low-volume, manual or dexterous environments.
Imagine an operator assembling a kit of parts. Before the next stage, they simply take a photo of the completed setup, and the system verifies that every required component is present and correctly positioned. Or a laboratory technician uses their phone to confirm that each bench is prepared identically before testing begins.
By connecting the camera on a portable device to a cloud-based classification platform, the system can instantly return a validation result complete with traceable records and image storage.
A new kind of vision product
What makes this different is not just portability, but flexibility. Rather than installing cameras and PCs on a production line, users would subscribe to a cloud-hosted vision service, paying monthly for access.
This approach means we could easily add new capabilities in the future too. AI tools and classification features for example. It’s scalable, accessible, and requires no specialist hardware beyond a camera-equipped device.
Designed for collaboration
Right now, this is an evolving concept and that’s intentional. We don’t want to limit it to a single industry or use case. Instead, we’re inviting customers to help shape it.
As Reece Donneky, Applications Engineer at Fisher Smith, explains:
“We’ve had several enquiries that point to the same need: a lightweight, flexible way to verify items in environments where traditional systems don’t fit. Our goal is to make vision accessible anywhere, with the reliability we’re known for at Fisher Smith.”
If you have a process that could benefit from mobile visual verification, whether in production, logistics, assembly or education, we’d love to hear from you.
Talk to us today about how Fisher Smith can help you with a handheld machine vision solution.
