Frontier Spirit
The myth of the frontier is ingrained in many Western cultures, especially in America. The legacy of this myth includes some unacceptable aspects, including conquest and the belief of moral superiority. In the best sense, however, it contains the promise of a better future and a pioneering spirit. These qualities were certainly evident in the recent US presidential election and this same spirit will be needed everywhere as nations and peoples emerge from the economic recession and deal with threats such as climate change and terrorism.
Indeed, the frontier has become a metaphor for what we can hope to accomplish within this well-mapped and increasingly crowded world. In his campaign for the presidency in 1960, John F. Kennedy introduced his central idea: the New Frontier. He spoke of unexplored horizons in space and science and battling poverty, ignorance, and war.
In doing so, he eloquently framed the idea of the frontier not as geographical or spatial, but one involving human relations and applied knowledge. With this spirit of applied knowledge, researchers, engineers, and designers who work with machine-vision and image-processing technologies have much to contribute.
The new cartography
In terms of economic benefits, machine vision is often associated with factory automation systems that improve quality and efficiency. Such an application is illustrated by contributing editor Winn Hardin in his article describing the removal of contaminants from salt during industrial processing at a facility in Germany.
Beyond these traditional applications, machine vision is extending its reach into nonindustrial areas that can benefit both world economies and society at large. To maintain the transportation infrastructure, for example, highway engineers can now turn to machine vision for surveillance of pavements, bridges, and signs, as described in an article by Liviu Bursanescu and colleagues at GIE Technologies in Canada. In medicine, multispectral stereo cameras can assist the medical professional in peering beneath a patient’s skin, as discussed in a feature by Richard Meester at Quest Innovations in The Netherlands.
Pioneering the latest developments in machine vision and image processing was the theme of the VISION 2008 show held in Stuttgart, Germany. Reporting on these trends, editor Andy Wilson describes the many technologies and applications that were displayed. These new products and technologies confirm the fact that pioneering developments in machine vision on the global frontier depend on applied knowledge and not geography.
W. Conard Holton, Editor in Chief
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