From everyone at Imaging and Machine Vision Europe – Happy International Day of Light!
International Day of Light (IDL) takes place on 16 May each year, marking the anniversary of the first successful operation of the laser in 1960 by physicist and engineer Theodore Maiman, and is a global celebration of light and its importance in our daily lives.
To mark this special occasion, we highlight some of the latest exciting innovations taking place across the machine vision sector!
Event-based vision penetrates the consumer market
Event-based sensors are currently making waves in the vision sector. Instead of capturing individual frames at a fixed rate, event cameras detect individual pixel change in brightness – called events – through intelligent pixels, and process these as they occur. This enables them to capture dynamic scenes with higher temporal resolution, lower latency, lower data generation and lower power consumption than traditional cameras. Such sensors are now making their way into smartphone technologies, where by combining their collected data with that of frame-based image sensors, they can be used to effectively deblur images.
Compact hyperspectral imaging emerges
While hyperspectral imaging solutions have traditionally been on the bulkier side, modern solutions are now emerging that do away with the precision optics typically used between the lens and the image sensor. Leveraging thin-film spectral filters deposited directly on top of image sensors, these new solutions enable a robust, compact format not unlike standard machine vision chips and cameras. Built on the same wafer-level CMOS process used to create microchips, they are also mass-manufacturable, cost-efficient, and highly customisable.
Computer vision and machine learning reaches MCU platforms
As part of the next wave of the IoT evolution, chip developers are now overcoming the constraints of MCU platforms to deploy vector processing and unlock highly efficient, low-power computer vision and machine learning functionality. This could have implications everywhere from smart cameras and smart home appliances to smart retail, industrial applications, access control and smart doorbells. This is particularly important as such devices are often battery-powered and constrained by size.
For more on on how photonic technology is providing real-world solutions, keep your eyes open for Photonics Frontiers, being published by our sister title Electro Optics next month. If you see us at Laser World of Photonics at the end of June, be sure to ask for a physical copy!
Or why not nominate someone from the next generation of photonics researchers in the Photonics100? Nominations are now open.
To find out more about the celebration of International Day of Light, go to: www.dayoflight.org
