NOVEMBER 25--With National Instruments (Austin, TX; www.ni.com) Vision Builder for Automated Inspection, production test engineers can now create complete machine-vision applications using a single software solution and employ a development environment that can integrate image acquisition, machine-vision inspection, decision making, and I/O control into a manufacturing test application. With this easy-to-use software, engineers with no previous programming experience can create machine-vision applications using intuitive inspection tools to directly interact with images. Now engineers can create factory-floor applications, such as in-line part inspection and quality-control monitoring, quickly and easily. NI Vision Builder for Automated Inspection also features an interactive image-processing and analysis environment with advanced decision-making capabilities and I/O support. The built-in I/O capabilities give users the ability to easily control serial lines and static digital I/O modules and interface to a wide range of external devices including strobes, cameras, and PLCs. This new software also features advanced decision making and data logging, which engineers can employ to store images and inspection data based on predefined criteria.
In addition, LabVIEW code generation provides engineers with programming flexibility and customization. Although NI Vision Builder for Automated Inspection does not require additional software, using LabVIEW and code generation capabilities, engineers can take advantage of the virtual instrumentation platform. Once they create their vision applications, they can use LabVIEW to build a customized user interface and integrate motion control and data acquisition with machine vision. For engineers who need optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities, Vision Builder for Automated Inspection includes a trainable, high-speed OCR engine that gives them the power to train their program to read serial numbers or identification codes that are marked on wafers, glass, electronic components, and medical devices.
