INDUSTRY INSIGHT
will stay like this for a few more years because industrial will always need the long-term availability of components.’ Applications that Vision Components’
Mipi modules are opening up include those using drones, smart glasses with eye tracking, Schmitt noted, and also for pathology testing. Vision Components has been in touch with companies developing blood analysis devices, for example, but at a price that is much cheaper than what exists on the market now. ‘Tese are existing markets with a new
approach,’ he said, ‘but also bringing higher volumes, which is interesting for companies. Tat’s something we’re going to see quite a lot in the coming years.’ Schmitt said that, even on the industrial
side, there are now more companies thinking of using vision because the price is coming down. He gave the example of Vision Components’ laser profiler, which is not new technology, but it’s at a lower price point – also with lower performance – than high-end laser triangulation sensors. ‘One sector where we’re quite strong
Michael Engel founded the firm 25 years ago g Ten, from the mid-2000s, it was just
an evolution in technology, according to Schmitt. Tis was until 2018 where a combination of things, influenced by the consumer market, meant everything changed. A new form of embedded vision started to take hold, fuelled by development in processors – GPUs, FPGAs and others – which also opened the door for neural networks and new applications based on AI. ‘Tis is the next step for machine vision and image processing in general,’ Schmitt said. He added that, largely, industrial vision has been separate from the consumer sector, but that there’s now more of an overlap, using consumer electronic technology for semi-industrial applications. ‘We are in the middle of this now,’ he said.
‘We’ve already seen a lot of consolidation in the machine vision industry, in part as the founding fathers reach retirement age. ‘It’s a shake-up of industries and
companies; an evolving market with a lot of consolidation around,’ he added. Twenty five years ago it took specialist
knowledge to build the VC11; today, an embedded vision solution can be made by students at university or hobbyists. All you need is a Mipi camera, a computer board like a Raspberry Pi, and some of the ready-to-use software tools that are now available. ‘If you wanted to do this 25 years ago, it would have needed months of work,’ Schmitt said. ‘Plus, I don’t think it would have been possible because you’re using AI, and the computational power
‘Tat’s not to say developing a commercial embedded vision device is easy’
needed was not available 25 years ago in the embedded sector.’ Tat’s not to say developing a commercial
embedded vision device is easy. Adapting and testing a system in the real world takes time and effort, and in an article for Imaging and Machine Vision Europe earlier in the year, Schmitt estimated that it could take between one and four years to build a commercial embedded vision product. Prototyping is reasonably straightforward, but validating the product and bringing this to mass market can take time. Vision Components now has a line of
Mipi cameras and other embedded vision modules, including its VC PicoSmart embedded module, launched earlier this year. One of the smallest embedded vision systems out there, VC PicoSmart is the size of an image sensor module – 22 x 23.5mm – and contains a one-megapixel global shutter CMOS sensor, an FPGA module, an FPU processor, and memory. Schmitt said its Mipi modules are
generating a completely new market segment, while the company continues to provide smart cameras for the industrial sector. ‘At the moment these two segments are running in parallel,’ Schmitt said. ‘Tis
18 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE VISION YEARBOOK 2021/22
with this technology is in 3D angle measurements in metal sheet bending machines,’ Schmitt said. ‘It’s a niche market, but our performance is more than enough and it’s much cheaper than the high-end profilers. We’re finding new markets or existing markets that were not open for machine vision because of the price point a few years ago.’ Schmitt added that Vision Components
has gone from zero competition when it first started to a point where now the firm’s biggest competitor is its potential customers. ‘Large companies have their own teams where they can develop their own cameras and hardware,’ he said. ‘Tis has changed completely; 20 years ago our customers were far away from designing their own components.’ He went on to say, however, that most
of Vision Components’ embedded vision components customers are focused on processing hardware and algorithms, and don’t want to touch camera development and image sensor integration. In addition, camera technology is evolving quickly, with new sensors being released regularly. Te camera module – in terms of camera boards – has become more of a commodity that is integrated into a system, Schmitt said. He concluded: ‘Twenty five years ago
you could already do nice things with smart cameras, but you had to put a lot of effort into the programming. Today, in a lot of applications, there’s no need to optimise the code. If it doesn’t run fast enough, you just upgrade to the next CPU. It opens doors to many more applications because it’s so much easier.’ O
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