The German embedded vision pioneer Vision Components celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2021. The year was duly kicked off with a major product launch: VC picoSmart, currently the world’s smallest embedded vision system. The anniversary will also be marked by a webinar series and a hackathon under the motto, ‘There must be a better way to do this’ – a mindset that has always driven product development in the company.
In 1995, CEO Michael Engel developed and presented the world’s first industrial-grade smart camera. Founding the company in the year after and taking up series production, he profoundly changed the machine vision market. The freely programmable cameras provided great flexibility for OEMs to design customized solutions for all conceivable vision applications. Many tasks could now be solved by highly compact systems that needed neither an image processing computer nor a control cabinet. After the first generation of smart cameras, Vision Components soon launched the next trailblazing innovations, including the first intelligent vision sensors and the first embedded 3D laser profilers. Most recently, the manufacturer presented the VC picoSmart miniature embedded vision system, fully functional, with all components for frame grabbing and image processing, including FPGA and FPU, and as small as a conventional image sensor module. In addition, Vision Components is also a leader in the development and manufacture of MIPI camera modules for flexible embedded vision designs based on single-board computers; the company offers the widest range of sensors in this segment, along with drivers and powerful accessories for a speedy successful commissioning. Vision Components ensures long-term availability of all its products for commercial projects.
