STUTTGART, GERMANY-The 24th International Trade Fair for Machine Vision (MV), Vision 2011, will be staged this year at the Stuttgart Trade Fair Centre from November 8 – 10, 2011.

"All indications are that this year’s VISION will surpass the record from 2010. Far more net exhibition space has now already been booked than in the comparable period last year", says Florian Niethammer, project manager for VISION at Messe Stuttgart.

The Integration Area, an exhibition platform specifically for systems integrators, will be considerably larger this year. “Based on the number of registrations received to date, there will be 50% more exhibitors than in 2010", Niethammer says.

Practical live demonstrations in the Application Park and the Vision Academy, the user-oriented training forum during Vision 2011, will make it even more attractive for end users to attend the trade fair.

The machine vision industry is also opening up more and more application areas in the non-industrial sector. Vision 2011 will examine this trend and focus for the first time on medical technology as an upcoming application area. A Medical Discovery tour will indicate, by means of a special logo, exhibitors’ stands that are offering machine vision products, solutions or services for medical technology. To date, 42 companies have signed up to take part in the Medical Discovery tour.

Vision 2011 will also again feature an International Pavilion for first-time exhibitors from abroad, a group stand funded by the German Ministry of Economics (BMWi) for innovative young enterprises from Germany and the presentation of the 19th Vision award for outstanding achievements in machine vision.

In addition to the high-tech exhibition, Vision also contains an extensive first-class accompanying programme relating to advanced training. More than 300 exhibitors, of whom more than 40% come from abroad, will present their innovations in the area of image acquisition and machine vision. These innovations will include cameras, vision sensors, frame grabbers, software tools, illumination systems, lenses, accessories, complete systems, innovative application solutions and services. Some exhibitor highlights will be used as examples to demonstrate the trends which are now emerging in machine vision.

In addition to the innovative trade fair, visitors to Vision 2011 can look forward to an extensive advanced training program on all three days. The Industrial Vision Days will be the leading event in this respect. Competent representatives from the machine vision industry will speak on current topics from machine vision practice.

The program will feature exciting topics such as 3-D in medical technology, parallel computing in machine vision, the advantages of the latest data interfaces, e.g. USB 3.0, CameraLink HS and 10 GigE Vision. During a special show entitled "Interface standards brought to life", visitors to the trade fair will also have the opportunity to talk directly to developers and see standards being used. This special show has been initiated in cooperation with the Automated Imaging Association (AIA), the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) and the Japan Industrial Imaging Association (JIIA). An expert panel will take place on the second day of the trade fair as part of the Industrial Vision Days. The previously announced topic has been changed. The new motto is now "The future of machine vision. Going embedded".

VISION 2011 is expected to attract visitors from the automotive industry, the automotive supply industry, mechanical engineering, the electrotechnical and electronics industries, the precision mechanics and optical industries, the printing, glass, wood and rubber industries, the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, the food industry, the aerospace industry, the medical technology industry, the security industry, traffic control systems, sport, advertising and entertainment. The target number of visitors is around 7,000.