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Special Features Highlights 2005 p1 of 2:

• Integrators and end users flock to Fall trade shows
  In September, two seemingly disparate trade shows were held in the same week. While PackExpo filled multiple halls in Las Vegas, NV, USA, the biennial International Robots & Vision Show was being held in Rosemont, IL, USA. Attendees at PackExpo were a different group from those at the Robots & Vision Show.
• Recyclable material finds new ally
  Defense-contractor QinetiQ (Farnsborough, UK; www.qinetiq.com) has developed a hyperspectral-imaging-based machine that can automatically identify and sort recyclable domestic waste. Designed to help local authorities and waste-management companies recover materials cost-effectively from curbside collections, the high-throughput demonstrator helps optimize the value and purity obtainable from recycling.
• Vision and control team to make saws safer
  Anyone who has operated a table saw has done so with some trepidation. Operators using hand-fed saws are particularly vulnerable since after adjusting the height and angle of the blade, the operator manually pushes the stock into the blade. If the operator's hands slip while feeding the stock into the saw, or if the operator holds his/her hands too close to the blades, injuries can occur.
• Choosing a frame grabber for machine-vision applications
  Hundreds of frame grabbers are on the market to allow integration of digital and analog machine-vision cameras with host computers. Varying features make each one unique for a particular application. When evaluating frame grabbers for a specific application, developers must be aware of specific camera types (either digital or analog), the sensor types they use (area or linescan), their systems requirements, and the cost of peripherals.
• New FireWire standard targets industrial applications
  Thanks to the increasing performance of CPUs and programmable logic controllers (PLCs), today's automation systems can be realized using a number of decentralized modules. While global functions such as module parameter setup and network management are performed by industrial PCs, such tasks may also be assigned to control modules such as PLCs.
• Edible printing is easily imaged
  Ablating data onto fruit with a laser can result in the skin being vaporized and the product deteriorating. On light-colored citrus fruit ablation produces insufficient contrast to read or image unless enhanced by a food dye. To overcome these limitations, Sherwood Technology (Widnes, UK; www.sherwoodtech.com) has developed a system that uses a low-power CO₂ laser to mark fruit.
• AOI sees connections in 3-D
  For automated-optical-inspection (AOI) applications, GÖPEL electronics (Jena, Germany; www.goepel.com) has enhanced its existing TOM Line inspection system with TOM 3D to provide additional inspection capabilities. These include checking connectors by inspecting for pin distortion, pin height, the verification of text-embossed or punched fonts-and measuring the solder or tinning volume at joints.
• Quality drives European vision-market growth
  Increased sales, emergence of new competitors, and sustained marketing and promotional activities by vendors are all clear indications that the European industrial vision-systems market is growing.
• Asia vision markets grow
  Less is known about the machine-vision market in the Asia-Pacific region than the markets in Europe or North America. This was one of the reasons IMS Research felt it was important to produce a market analysis dedicated to this region. The results proved to be very interesting, since the Asia-Pacific market is quite different from the markets in Europe and North America, which share many characteristics not only in structure but also in growth rates.
• Adaptive optics tracks microstructures
  In its conventional form, the optical microscope is a trade-off between resolution and field of view. A new optical-microscope design combines a high-speed steering mirror, a custom-designed scanner lens, a MEMS deformable mirror, and additional optics to enlarge the field of view while preserving resolving power and operating at a high image-acquisition rate to capture a mosaic of images.

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