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Computer vision has been deeply integrated in manufacturing for 20+ years. if you've brushed your teeth or drank a sports drink in the last 10 years, your tooth
by vidanay 4y ago
Computer vision has been deeply integrated in manufacturing for 20+ years. if you've brushed your teeth or drank a sports drink in the last 10 years, your toothbrush or bottle has probably gone through a vision system that I write the software for.
(Not Cognex)
- codetrotter 4y agoFANUC?
- vidanay 4y agoNope.
- snarf21 4y agoAgreed, I worked on manufacturing quality assurance software that controlled vision to detect particles in vials of medicine 20 years ago. The main thing that has changed is the quality of the camera has greatly increased and the price of the camera has greatly decreased.
- vidanay 4y agoYeah, when I started, we were using RS-170 cameras connected to $30k Cognex acquisition boards (all analog). The switch over to USB and then GigE has been fantastic.
- snarf21 4y agoI miss it in a way. USB cameras were just coming online and we're very good yet when I switched to a different industry. It looks like the company was acquired into an automation machinery parent company.
- vidanay 4y agoGod, the first generations of both USB and Ethernet cameras positively SUCKED. Flaky, buggy, and expensive. Our first foray into Ethernet cameras was from a company called Opteon. They had taken a stock Intel ethernet card and flashed custom firmware onto it to support their custom framing. If the cards and the cameras didn't match exact versions, you could end up bricking one or both of them. They had to be sent back to the vendor to be fixed. edit: Oh, hey! Opteon still exists! I'm sure their products are much better than those first generations. https://www.opteontech.com/products/cameras https://www.opteontech.com/products/cameras
- snarf21 4y agooops, meant to say "were NOT very good yet when I switched to a different industry". Apparently I failed at typing and paying attention to a meeting at the same time. :)
- zwieback 4y agoSame here, RS-170 into Cognex MVS8100 ca. 20 years ago. Their pattern matching was gold standard at the time. We also used Matrox but I was a Cognex man at that time. Some of those systems are still running today but I do not miss the days of analog video one bit.
- goblinux 4y agoGotta be Keyence? My favorite machine vision use case is the tomato sorter. This is one I found from YouTube, not affiliated https://youtu.be/j4RWJTs0QCk https://youtu.be/j4RWJTs0QCk
- vidanay 4y agoNo. my company makes entire PC based vision systems including material handling and value added services. We are not a component level vendor.
- goblinux 4y agoMakes sense. I think it's funny that by you providing a major employer where you don't work nerd sniped a couple of us into guessing the other players in the space.
- jcynix 4y agoAh, a Tomra machine. They too produce the machines which collect returnable bottles. Those are installed in each Supermärkte in Germany, for example. And here's documentation on machines which sort grapes intended for wine production: https://www.food.fraunhofer.de/en/beispiele12/Produktschutz/sortiertechnik-fuer-weintrauben-.html https://www.food.fraunhofer.de/en/beispiele12/Produktschutz/...
- ben_w 4y agoAye. Back at university, 19-18 years ago now, I had a "mandatory"[0] year in "industry"[1], and some of the job advertisements were for adding computer vision to some process or other. Given how… out of date the teacher introductory module in the final year course was, there was no way this was students being asked to actually create those vision systems. [0] scare quotes because I had the completely free choice between two otherwise identical degrees, one of which had a mandatory year in industry and the other did not, because the UK council tax system demands a different rate if you're a student on a course with a mandatory year in industry [1] also a cheat, I worked for an academic research lab
- cardosof 4y agoCongrats for building stuff that lasts. Would you be able to share what it does, even if in generic and high level terms?
- auxym 4y agoHijacking to post another example. I know from a previous work experience that automated dye-penetrant inspection (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_penetrant_inspection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_penetrant_inspecti...), using CV for the automatic detection of indications, has been used in aerospace for at the very least 15 years (and quite likely much more).
- vidanay 4y agoJust about anything you can think of, we've provided inspection equipment for it... Toothbrushes, drink bottles, oil bottles, more labels than you can imagine, pharmaceuticals, credit cards, fast food packaging, retail packaging, wine bottles, liquor bottles, beer cans, injection molded plastics, IBM bottles, insert molded bottles, cosmetics, raw foods, countless barcodes, and many, many more.
- piloto_ciego 4y agoI’m going to grad school for computer vision… how do I do this in manufacturing for money when I’m done with school?
- s0rce 4y agoTons of jobs in varied sectors, my employer has a few people working on this in various aspects.
- piloto_ciego 4y agoWhat should I learn then along the way? I cannot seem to get anyone to email me or call me before, that’s actually why I went to grad school lol.
- s0rce 4y agoLearn to get into machine vision? Start doing projects in the area and also learn about the mechanical, controls and electrical components of the equipment.
- bigger_cheese 4y agoMy best advice if you want to break into manufacturing is to pair Machine Learning / Computer Vision skills with an Engineering degree (Chemical, Mechanical or similar). I work in heavy industry (Steel Mill) most people that get hired around here have Engineering degrees. Mining, Oil and Gas is quite similar. We do engage with data science people etc (Usually as consultants) but there can be a lot of friction as oftentimes the conversation gets lost in translation. If you can fluently speak 'engineer' and 'data scientist' you would make yourself a very attractive hire.
- piloto_ciego 4y agoI was a pilot in my old life, so I can speak engineer as a side effect lol
- rsfern 4y ago
- sizzle 4y agoSystek (sp?)
- thecleaner 4y agoHow much does th industry use the fancy vision algorithms ? Or are the algorithms based on classic computer vision ?