Machine Vision FAQ’s
Frequently Asked Questions
You may find answers to some of your other questions here on our main machine vision systems page.
What is machine vision?
Machine vision is the use of a camera or multiple cameras to inspect and analyze objects automatically, usually in an industrial or production environment. The data acquired then can be used to control a process or manufacturing activity.
What is a machine vision smart camera?
A machine vision smart camera captures image data and sends it uncompressed to the PC. This is the reason why pictures look less “pretty” than the ones from cell phones. In consumer cameras the image data gets compressed and smoothed out which looks good, but doesn’t provide the quality needed for flaw detection and code reading.
If you have a high-speed application with a conveyor belt, you will need a line scan camera. These cameras use a single line of pixels (sometimes two or three lines) to capture the image data. If you need in-depth inspection, area scan cameras are your choice. They have a rectangular sensor consisting of several lines of pixels and capture the whole image at the same time.
Monochrome cameras are mostly a better choice if the application does not require a color analysis. Because they don’t need a color filter, they are more sensitive than color cameras and deliver more detailed images.
What is 3D machine vision?
3D machine vision detects objects regardless of position. As a result, robots have more flexibility and independence when compared to their 2D only counterparts. Robot vision with 3D lets the machine know if an object is lying down, upright, or hanging.
Robots with 3D machine vision can fulfill various tasks without reprogramming. They can account for unexpected variables in work environments. 3D vision allows robots to know what’s in front of them and react properly. 3D imaging is currently being used in metrology, guidance, and defect analysis systems.
What is industrial machine vision?
Industrial machine vision systems provide machine vision systems, smart cameras, special purpose vision machines and retro-fit vision camera solutions for factory automation.
What is machine vision used for?
Machine vision is used for quality control purposes, it is helping businesses in many ways today for identification, inspection, guidance and more. Some examples include:
- Correcting production line defects
- In farming, machine vision is also used as part of farm machinery to monitor crops and detect diseases on plants.
- Inventory control and management
- Product tracking and traceability
- >Measurements and calibration
Click for our machine vision case studies.
What is machine vision in artificial intelligence?
In the field of Machine Vision, some companies have exploited AI techniques although many possibilities still remain untapped. Machine vision can make use of and learns how to differentiate between products using a hardware neural network. Providing good and bad examples of an object can allow some machine vision systems to learn the characteristics of the object to be inspected. Pattern recognition, statistical and fuzzy logic AI can also be incorporated into machine vision. Machine vision systems need to be adaptive and intuitive which is ideal for artificial intelligence solutions.
What is machine vision software?
Machine vision software allows engineers and developers to design, deploy and manage vision applications. Vision applications are used by machines to extract and ingest data from visual imagery.
What is machine vision in robotics?
When cameras are used in robotics, machine vision algorithms take care of the image analysis. They assist the robot to “see” objects and understand the environment it is in, so to navigate without stumbling on obstacles. Some of the machine vision’s algorithms are application-specific, while others are common to almost all robotics applications and robots using machine vision.
What is a telecentric lens?
Telecentricity is a special case where the principal optical rays are parallel to the lens’s optical axis. In an object-side telecentric, the lens on the object side (as opposed to the camera side) principal rays are parallel to the optical axis, this eliminates perspective errors . An object is always displayed the same size at different working distances, i.e. the magnification does not change with varying working distances. Telecentric lenses are generally used where distance and location of the test object can affect the measurement accuracy and are ideal for precision measurement applications. Due to the parallel beam path telecentric lenses can be used to image critical and awkward optical surfaces and material properties for example high gloss, optically active materials, variable edge shapes, glass etc.
What is a entocentric or standard lens?
Entocentric refers to the ‘normal’ perspective, i.e. the optical properties of such a lens corresponds to how the human eye works. The farther away an object is, the smaller it appears, this phenomenon arises because of the way the lens bends the light beams to reach the imaging sensor.
With these lenses, the magnification changes with varying working distances therefore entocentric or standard lenses are only suitable for non-measurement applications. Often with the lower priced lenses other types of distortion can also be found, especially towards the edges of the lens
These lenses can be sucessfully applied to color, presence, completeness, surface inspections, as well as characters, code and feature recognition.
Are LED lights robust enough to install within a factory machine?
Yes. We can supply a range of 24 volt IP67 rated industrial machine led lighting which is vibration proof and can withstand temperatures up to 55 degress Centigrade.
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