Whois & Analysis for cognex.com

Machine vision (MV) is the technology and methods used to provide imaging-based automatic inspection and analysis for such applications as automatic inspection, process control, and robot guidance, usually in industry.

Machine vision is a term encompassing a large number of technologies, software and hardware products, integrated systems, actions, methods and expertise.

Machine vision as a systems engineering discipline can be considered distinct from computer vision, a form of basic computer science.

It attempts to integrate existing technologies in new ways and apply them to solve real world problems.

The term is also used in a broader sense by trade shows and trade groups; this broader definition also encompasses products and applications most often associated with image processing.

A barcode is an optical, machine-readable, representation of data; the data usually describes something about the object that carries the barcode.

Originally barcodes systematically represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or one-dimensional (1D).

Later two-dimensional (2D) codes were developed, using rectangles, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns in two dimensions, usually called barcodes although they do not use bars as such.

Barcodes originally were scanned by special optical scanners called barcode readers.

Later applications software became available for devices that could read images, such as smartphones with cameras.

Automation or automatic control, is the use of various control systems for operating equipment such as machinery, processes in factories, boilers and heat treating ovens, switching on telephone networks, steering and stabilization of ships, aircraft and other applications and vehicles with minimal or reduced human intervention.

Some processes have been completely automated.

Cognex Corporation is an American manufacturer of machine vision systems, software and sensors used in automated manufacturing to inspect and identify parts, detect defects, verify product assembly, and guide assembly robots.

Cognex is headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, USA.

It has offices in more than 20 countries.

An image sensor or imaging sensor is a sensor that detects and conveys the information that constitutes an image.

It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves (as they pass through or reflect off objects) into signals, small bursts of current that convey the information.

The waves can be light or other electromagnetic radiation.

Image sensors are used in electronic imaging devices of both analog and digital types, which include digital cameras, camera modules, medical imaging equipment, night vision equipment such as thermal imaging devices, radar, sonar, and others.

As technology changes, digital imaging tends to replace analog imaging.