Machine Vision Academy

Master the Latest Application Techniques

Are you interested in image processing (inspection using a camera)? Have you thought about automating the visual inspection conducted on your production line? Have you considered implementing a vision sensor, but have given up because it seemed too diffi cult to use? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this guide provides professional image processing solutions for factory automation.

Machine vision systems have the ability to capture and evaluate targets in two dimensions, making them very useful for automating inspections once done by the human eye.

A digital camera has almost the same structure as that of a conventional (analog) camera, but the difference is that a digital camera comes equipped with an image sensor called a CCD. The image sensor is similar to the film in a conventional camera and captures images as digital information, but how does it convert images into digital signals?

The CCD stands for a Charge Coupled Device, which is a semiconductor element that converts images into digital signals. It is approx. 1 cm in both height and width, and consists of small pixels aligned like a grid.

When taking a picture with a camera, the light reflected from the target is transmitted through the lens, forming an image on the CCD. When a pixel on the CCD receives the light, an electric charge corresponding to the light intensity is generated. The electric charge is converted into an electric signal to obtain the light intensity (concentration value) received by each pixel.