Vision `98 to reflect strong German imaging-industry growth
Stuttgart, Germany--From Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 1998, the Killesberg trade fairgrounds will be the home of the Vision `98 International Trade Fair for Industrial Image Processing and Identification Technologies. Organized by Messe Stuttgart International, the fair is expected to attract more than 5000 attendees and 100 exhibitors and will present information on image processing for industrial applications, image-processing components and measuring equipment, image-processing technologies, automatic identification, and image processing for nonindustrial applications.
In addition, the 20th Symposium for Pattern Recognition, organized by the German Working Party for Pattern Recognition (DAGM), will be staged concurrently with Vision `98. Supervised by Paul Levi, director of the Institute for Parallel High-Performance Computers at the University of Stuttgart, the symposium will present research results from the field of pattern recognition in medical, 3-D measurement, and image-sequence analysis applications. The DAGM will also stage three seminars that will cover digital image-processing concepts, neural networks and computer vision, and unsupervised learning processes regarding data analysis, visualization, and information retrieval.
At the symposium, DAGM will award its $5600 Olympus prize for outstanding work in the field of pattern recognition. For the sixth year, Messe Stuttgart International will also present a $2250 prize for the most innovative development in image processing. Last year`s winner, HGV Vosseler (Ohringen, Germany), received the prize for the development of a three-dimensional endoscope for cavity inspection.
Organized by the Technical Department for Industrial Image Processing/Machine Vision in the Association of German Machinery Manufacturers and called Industrial Vision Days, the fair`s technical conference will run concurrently and will offer daily talks on new image-processing products and applications. The main topics include surface measurements, quality testing, machine-vision software, three-dimensional measuring systems, robotic vision, and machine-vision hardware, optics, and lighting.
Based on a market volume of $325 million in 1997, total sales in the German image-processing industry increased 16% compared to the previous year. Approximately 33% of these sales were achieved overseas. The main customer was Western Europe, followed by North America. Major sales markets included the automobile industry, metalworking, and the electronics industry.
German image-processing product suppliers are projecting industry growth rates of 18% in 1998 and 20% in 1999. More than 80% of the suppliers report a dramatic buyer interest in software and system-integration solutions.
A. W.
