Embedded vision systems are being leveraged in industrial manufacturing and trends such as ease of use, lower costs, and smaller chips are helping their widespread adoption.
Embedded vision systems differ from traditional machine vision systems in that they combine both image capture and image processing, from a hardware and software perspective, into the same device.
Embedded vision systems originated in consumer electronics, featuring in smartphones in the year 2000, but have since made the leap to the industrial sector. Now, this technology is beginning to be adopted by a wide range of industries – medical, automotive, surveillance, robotics, and semiconductor industries, among many others, are all leveraging embedded vision.
While embedded vision offers many benefits for end users, there are four technological trends driving its widespread use.
1. Shrinking chip sizes
The continued miniaturization of silicon and chips is one of the primary reasons embedded vision has been able to achieve its current success. It will continue to enable its adoption in a wider range of industrial devices, as smaller embedded systems allow for easier integration.
2. Energy-efficient design
Embedded vision has continued to feature ever increasing energy-efficient designs, typically powered by Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) processors. This has maximized the amount of processing power that can fit in a compact space, allowing for higher resolutions and speeds in demanding vision applications.
3. Embedded vision software
The rise of the Linux operating system, as well as the OpenCV computer vision library, has advanced the capabilities of embedded vision software. Both are free for end users, making advanced embedded vision processing applications accessible to a wider audience.
4. Simplicity and cost
Embedded vision system design is far more streamlined than traditional vision systems and suppliers are constantly designing systems with ease of use in mind. They’re also far cheaper than traditional vision systems, meaning embedded vision has increasingly become easier to deploy at a lower cost.
Embedded vision systems have the potential to transform applications, as well as create entirely new ones, across a wide range of industries in the industrial sector. As the technology advances, embedded vision will continue to see mainstream adoption and market growth.
This article originally appeared in Vision Online. AIA is a part of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), a CFE Media content partner. Edited by Chris Vavra, production editor, CFE Media, [email protected].
