The Automated Imaging Association (AIA), the world's largest machine vision trade group, announced that membership has reached a record high of 304 companies from 27 nations.
Soliton Technologies of Bangalore, India, the first Indian company to design and manufacture machine vision cameras, became AIA's 300th member.
'It is fitting that a company from India is our 300th member,' said Jeffrey Burnstein, AIA's executive vice president, who has been with the association since its founding in 1984. 'One of the keys to our successful growth is the decision by our board of directors more than a decade ago to become a truly global trade association by accepting members from around the world and promoting the industry in every corner of the globe. In fact, Dana Whalls and I will lead AIA's first mission to India in September 2008 as we attempt to find new opportunities for our members in this rapidly developing nation.'
Founded in 1984, AIA was organised specifically to promote the use of image capture and analysis technology. Originally AIA represented companies who focused on factory automation applications of machine vision. Today the technology has expanded to applications such as medical imaging, biometrics, security, life sciences, entertainment, and intelligent transportation, among others.
'We've seen the growth of our industry and trade association go from a small group of companies in the early 1980s to a multi-billion dollar global marketplace driven by hundreds of successful companies,' said Dana Whalls, managing director of AIA. Worldwide, machine vision industry sales were $5.2bn in 2007 and are expected to reach $6.8bn by 2012. Whalls attributes the growth to the fact that more companies in a wider variety of industries are utilising machine vision and imaging technologies to automate their processes, increase quality, improve productivity, and ultimately reduce costs.
