Technical tips
Our technical tips dig deeper and explain machine vision technology down to the last detail.
Hyperspectral imaging: Detecting food contamination – a new approach
Inspection is a critical component of HACCP programs in the food industry. Hyperspectral imaging now provides a powerful complementary approach for the machine vision engineer. Its ability to identify differences in the chemical composition of organic materials opens up major new possibilities for detecting impurities in food products. Most importantly, systems are now available that operate in real time, allowing them to be used on high speed production lines.
Hyperspectral imaging: the evolution of machine vision
Chemical Colour Imaging (CCI) makes complex hyperspectral data on a molecular level usable for machine vision. Hyperspectral imaging systems from STEMMER IMAGING based on a generic, intuitive configurable data processing platform developed by Perception Park make the scientific methods of hyperspectral analysis accessible for everyone and open up new application areas.
Illumination techniques
When implementing an image processing solution, the selection of suitable illumination is a crucial element in determining the quality of the captured images and can have a huge effect on the subsequent evaluation of the image. Despite this, choosing the best light source for an application is often among the most fraught tasks in image processing and is quite often neglected - to the detriment of the overall system.
Illumination: Getting the Basics Right
In any camera-based application the illumination is a critical part of the system. At the most basic level, there must be enough light so that the camera can acquire a good image. Beyond this it is almost always necessary to use the orientation, geometry or colour of light to highlight relevant details or minimise the appearance of unhelpful parts of the image, such as glare. Getting the illumination right simplifies analysis, indeed it may be critical to an inspection.
Image processing on the graphics card
There are many different ways of increasing image processing speed. In the latest version of Common Vision Blox, STEMMER IMAGING has adopted a new method: offloading parts of the processing to the PC`s graphics card, which can boost the speed of some functions by up to a factor of 10.
Intelligent lighting
A focus group of machine vision industry leaders, chaired by the VDMA, recently reported that emerging technology would influence the sector in some significant areas. These included new applications being made possible by advances in new vision technology coming to market, and an increase in machine vision users as vision technology becomes easier to use.
Introduction to FPGA acceleration
FPGAs used for data conversion is wide-spread and generally unseen by the user but when they are brought to the forefront of processing, they have the ability to offload processing power from the CPU and can enable extremely high bandwidths.
LED Technology
Halogen lamps used to be the conventional light emitters for many image processing illuminators. But now the LED, with its longer life, lower operating costs and the associated increased operations security is ready to take over.
LEIA explains: What is the effect of flat field correction?
The invitation to our Machine Vision Technology Forum included the following quiz question. Let us give you the answer now!
Line scan cameras
To inspect sheet steel, paper web or other uncut materials for errors at extremely high speed during their manufacture, line-scan based image processing systems are often the only technically and economically viable solution. This article describes the current state-of-the-art line-scan systems.
Machine Learning and Deep Learning
The intention of this article is to inform the reader on the definitions, interpretations and implications of the term ‘deep learning’. It remains a hot topic, but terms change and the hope is that this article provides a good basis for further reading.
It deliberately avoids mathematics in favour of diagrams as it is intended only as a top-level description.
Machine Vision for Factory Automation
Many key tasks in the manufacture of products, including inspection, orientation, identification, and assembly, require the use of visual techniques; but implementers need to carefully match machine vision options with application requirements.