ANN ARBOR, MI, March 27-Machine Vision Markets–2007 Results and Forecasts to 2012, a new machine vision market study from the Automated Imaging Association (AIA), reports that machine vision and automated imaging continues to be a growth industry in North America.

The 2008 study is based on 2007 actual results and is organized primarily around the major machine vision product markets: optics, lighting, cameras, imaging boards, smart cameras and application-specific machine vision systems (ASMV). While the study predominantly focuses on the North American market, two chapters are dedicated to the emerging Chinese and Indian machine vision markets. The study also provides worldwide estimates of sales.

“Particularly in these challenging times, where the margin for error in decision-making is very thin, machine vision companies need to base their product-development and sales strategies on the most accurate view of the marketplace possible,” says Paul Kellett, AIA’s director of market analysis. “AIA has prepared its latest market study with this need foremost in mind. To satisfy this need, the study specifically analyzes sales by product feature, identifying the best-selling feature configurations by product market and key trends that suggest the direction of evolving customer preferences. It also investigates sales opportunities in new geographic markets.”