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Abstract
Purpose - To draw attention to some recent developments in machine vision equipment.
Design/methodology/approach - Presents advances in light emitting diode (LED) lighting, cameras and software, and gives examples of new products and their capabilities.
Findings - New thermal management techniques allow LED lights to take over many machine vision illumination systems. Lights and cameras can be ruggedised to withstand wash down. Standard interfacing is being adopted for machine vision cameras.
Originality/value - Highlights some new products which have applications including the food industry.
Keywords Image processing, Cameras, Optical instruments
Paper type Technical paper
Introduction
The Image Processing and Optical Technology (IPOT) Exhibition is held every year at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, and is a good place to review the developments in machine vision technology. The particular trends that impressed me this year were:
* the availability of very bright light emitting diode (LED) light sources with long operational lifetimes;
* the ruggedisation of cameras and lights for the wash down environment;
* the further development of clever image processing software; and
* a move to even higher resolution machine vision cameras.
Some of these have relevance for inspection systems in the food industry.
Bright LED sources
Brighter LED light sources have been coming on to the market over the past few years, and now they are getting even brighter, with the development of new thermal management techniques. Firstsight Vision sells an ultra high intensity linear LED light from VCubed called Lumi-LED that is even brighter than fibre optic lights, and lasts much longer. It has a typical output of over 450 lumens per 125mm, and an operational lifetime exceeding 50,000h. Its modular construction means that it is available in lengths of any multiple of 125mm up to 2,000mm. It is applicable to web inspection, for example, in food packaging printing.
Firstsight Vision also sells LED lights from the Japanese company CCS Inc., the world's largest supplier of LEDs with over 20,000 documented application evaluations. This company batch grades its products, so that it can match the LEDs in any illuminator to provide even lighting. New light sources from CCS include a dome illuminator for ultra uniform lighting, a range of high intensity "HLV series" lights with 3 W output at...