Web Exclusive Articles
Special Features Highlights 2006 p3 of 6:
-
Vision system verifies pharmaceutical infusion solutions
Incorrectly labeled infusion solutions are a major risk to the health of patients. Consequently, 5-digit solution numbers on seal caps are used to reliably track bottles with different medical infusion solutions during the manufacturing process.
-
System scans silk designs
Ratti (Como, Italy; www.ratti.it), a producer of high-quality silk and other natural fibers for the fashion and home-furnishing industry, creates 5000 hand-designed prints every year and has more than 170,000 archived textile designs. Recording and archiving the designs has always been essential, but conventional desktop scanners are too small to scan the large drawings and fabrics that contain creases or folds.
-
Linescan system reads brake-drum code
System-integrator Factory Automation Systems (FAS; Atlanta, GA, USA; www.factoryautomation.com) uses machine vision to perform orientation, identification, and code-reading tasks within robotic machine-handling processes. For example, one system finds the orientation of a cylindrical, truck brake drum and positions it for pickup and further handling by a robot.
-
High-speed system inspects fasteners
Given the rapid growth of the manufacturing and assembly industries in China, quality control of fasteners during the production process is essential. To meet this need, Shanghai Kingtek (Shanghai, China; www.kingtek.net) has develop the KT-200 fastener-inspection and automatic sorting system that images each fastener from four positions and removes defective fasteners as they pass through the station.
-
Fraunhofer offers adaptive optics kit
Originally developed for astronomy, adaptive-optics techniques can be used for imaging through biological tissue in optical microscopy or for any kind of object recognition in machine vision. Fraunhofer IPMS (Dresden, Germany; www.ipms.fraunhofer.de) has developed a complete MEMS phase former kit for adaptive optics. The key component is a high-resolution MEMS micromirror array of 240 ? 200 piston-type mirror elements.
-
AOI ensures reliability in automotive electronics (From VDMA--The German Engineering Federation)
Today innovations in the automotive field are distinguished primarily by electronic applications. For example, such circuitry ensures proper operation of the airbags, ESP, engine management, and navigation aids.
-
Bingo with vision
(From VDMA--The German Engineering Federation)
Two vision systems are being used to supervise the printing of bingo lottery tickets in Sweden. The lottery tickets are printed at Idrottens Digital Print AB in Molnlycke.
-
Brain controls color perception
In the first imaging of living human retinas, researchers at the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY, USA; www.rochester.edu) have found that the number of color-sensitive cones in the human retina differs dramatically among people-by up to 40 times-yet people appear to perceive colors the same way. The findings suggest that the perception of color is controlled much more by brains than by eyes.
-
Vision guides steel sheets to press
Thyssen Umformtechnik + Guss (Bielefeld, Germany) makes body parts for several automotive manufacturers. At its Brackwede plant, the company forms a variety of parts from sheets of steel or aluminum measuring up to 1.2 mm thick. The sheets must be positioned accurately as they go into the forming press or risk producing unusable parts or damaging the press. Lubricants make tracking and handling the sheets difficult, according to Benedikt Laackman, head of body-parts production.
-
Sensor sees vertical color
A team of scientists say they have made the first large-area color sensor free of aliasing effects by stacking red, green, and blue imaging elements. The researchers come from International University Bremen (Bremen, Germany; www.iu-bremen.de), Research Center Julich (Julich, Germany; www.fz-juelich.de), and the Palo Alto Research Center (Palo Alto, CA, USA; www.parc.xerox.com).
|
|
eNewsletter
Magazine
