Big Pharma needs machine vision

By Conard Holton
Discussions on the Vision System Design Group on LinkedIn have recently reflected the growing interest in using machine vision to inspect pharmaceutical products. We have published a series of technical article that might be of interest.

One article about a pharmaceutical packing system that uses IR and visible sensors describes how American SensoRx developed a system that inspects tablets, capsules, caplets, and gels at very high speeds before they are packed up and shipped to distributors.


Another describes how the German company Boehringer uses FireWire cameras to inspect capsules used in inhaled medications for respiratory disease.

And yet another describes how Pfizer added an x-ray system to its visible light inspection system to check tablets in blister packs.

Andy Wilson

Founding editor of Vision Systems Design. Industry authority and author of thousands of technical articles on image processing, machine vision, and computer science.

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