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Today's off the shelf machine vision components have emerged from research in numerous fields including optics, mathematics, physics and computer design.
Ask anyone who has ever designed, purchased, built, installed or operated a machine vision system what they believe to be some of the most significant developments in the field and the answers will be extremely diverse. Indeed, this was just the case when, for this our 200th Anniversary issue of Vision Systems Design we polled many of our readers with just such a question.
Which particular individuals, companies and organizations, types of technologies, products and applications did they consider to have most significantly affected the adoption of machine vision and image processing systems?
After reviewing the answers to these questions, it became immediately apparent that the age of our audience played an important part in how their answers were formulated. Here, perhaps their misconception (although understandable) was that machine vision and image processing was relatively new dating back just a half century. In his book "Understanding and Applying Machine Vision," however, Nello Zuech points out that the concepts for machine vision are evident as far back as the 1930s with Electronic Sorting Machines (then located in New Jersey) offering food sorters based on using specific filters and photomultiplier detectors.
While it is true that machine vision systems have only been deployed for less than a century, some of the most significant inventions and discoveries that led to the development of such systems date back far longer. To thoroughly chronicle this, one could begin by highlighting the development of early Egyptian optical lens systems dating back to 700 BC, the introduction of punched paper cards in 1801 by Joseph Marie Jacquard that allowed a loom to weave intricate patterns automatically or Maxwell's 1873 unified theory of electricity and magnetism.
To encapsulate the history of optics, physics, chemistry, electronics, computer and mechanical design into a single article, however, would, of course, be a momentous task. So, rather than take this approach, this article will examine how the discoveries and inventions by early pioneers have impacted more recent inventions such as the development of solid-state cameras, machine vision algorithms, LED lighting and computer-based vision systems.
Along the way, it will highlight some of the people,...