The Vision Show, held in Boston, Massachusetts from 25-27 May, has recorded double the attendees of 2009's show and conference. The positive response to the show reflects the recovery of the market and growth in the industries that are seeking vision and imaging solutions. The show is North America's largest standalone machine vision and imaging technology show, sponsored by the Automated Imaging Association (AIA), the global industry trade group.
The show featured vision and imaging technologies from 82 leading companies and showcased cameras, optics, lighting, software, components and complete vision systems. Nearly 1,900 people registered from 19 countries to see new technology innovations launched at the show. 'We were thrilled with the show and conference,' said Jeff Burnstein, president of the AIA. 'Several past exhibitors who chose not to exhibit at this year's show paid us a high compliment by telling us that they wished they had exhibited this year.'
The four-day vision conference provided training for a variety of experience levels, with the AIA launching its Certified Vision Professional programme. To earn CVP status, individuals must pass an exam based on the basic tutorial programmes AIA offers in the fundamentals of machine vision, beginning lighting and optics, basic vision software and algorithms, and camera and image sensor technology basics. About 30 per cent of the conference attendees took the CVP basic level exam, with 82 per cent of those passing.
'The CVP programme has value for end users, system integrators, OEMs and suppliers in the industry,' said Greg Hollows, AIA vice-chairman and director, machine vision solutions at Edmund Optics. 'Achieving certification will be an asset to individuals who want to establish their knowledge base within their company and industry. AIA is a leading global authority and AIA certification will be a very impressive achievement for career advancement.'
The AIA stated that one of the goals for this year's show was to reach a broad spectrum of industries, providing a hands-on opportunity to see how vision can help companies find innovative ways to increase quality, streamline processes, and find better ways to increase production efficiencies, all while keeping in line with their goal to reduce costs. 'Registrants came from traditional sectors that use vision, such as aerospace, pharmaceuticals, automotive, food and beverage, military/defence, semiconductor, medical device, consumer goods and electronics,' said Rusty Ponce de Leon, chairman of the AIA and president of Phase 1 Technology. 'But we also saw people from high-end security/surveillance, scientific imaging, entertainment, biometrics, mapping, metrology, energy, and intelligent signage, to name a few non-traditional industries.'
John Jennings, chief commercial officer at Basler Vision Technologies, commented on the show: 'We were pleasantly surprised with the quantity and quality of the attendees at this year's Vision Show. We were naturally a bit concerned going into the show due to the remaining uncertainties in the economy and restricted travel budgets, but attendance seemed to reflect the pick-up we are seeing in the US with our camera customers.'
While Vladimir Tucakov, director of sales and marketing at Point Grey Research, said: 'Point Grey has been exhibiting at The Vision Show since 1999, and over that time we've seen it become one of the most important machine vision trade shows in the world. We were particularly pleased with this year's event. There was good overall traffic in our booth and the quality of the visitors was very high. Many customers approached us with specific projects and well-defined camera requirements, so we are anticipating an increase in business as a result of our attendance.'
