Back to the Future: The beginning of Vision Systems Design
In the movieBack to the Future II,lead characters Marty McFly and Doc Brown arrive from the past on October 21, 2015. While many of the predictions that the 1989 movie made actually came true, some of them are a bit more bizarre, or at least a few years away.
The day in which McFly and Brown arrive from was October 26, 1985. While Vision Systems Design does not date this far back, we wanted to take a trip down memory lane by having a look at our first issue, which was published in September of 1996.
First, let’s have a look at an introduction that Andy Wilson wrote as part of the first ever edition ofthe magazine:
And now for something completely different…
When I was in high school, I was not very good at math. I often sat for hours puzzling over integral calculus homework. My father frequently helped by suggesting rules and tricks to solve those problems. Sometimes, he became very frustrated. One day when I could not solve a particular problem he stormed off. Then he stormed back. "Remember," he said, "each page in that book is worth $1." To my father, an engineer, knowledge was power.
Several decades and a few therapists later, I welcome you to the premiere issue of Vision Systems Design. As a publication tailored for engineers and engineering managers building vision systems for industrial, medical, military, and scientific markets, this magazine is unique. Every month we will bring you news, feature articles, and the latest OEM products for image capture, processing, storage, transmission, and display.
So what was covered in that first issue? The first thing I noticed was all of the new products that were covered. These includeframe grabbers and imaging boards, LED lighting, CCD cameras, software, and more. On the surface, it would seem that some things haven’t changed. They have, of course, as technologies and capabilities have progressed, but it is interesting to look at what the “new products” were at the time.
Among the feature articles, were topics on frame grabbers, a motion-based vision system (pictured above), X-ray analysis, and a DSP-based imaging system.
If you are curious at what the imaging world looked like in 1996, step into your DeLorean and head back. Or, if you want to take the easy route,check it out here.
James Carroll
Former VSD Editor James Carroll joined the team 2013. Carroll covered machine vision and imaging from numerous angles, including application stories, industry news, market updates, and new products. In addition to writing and editing articles, Carroll managed the Innovators Awards program and webcasts.