For those of you who were lucky enough to be in Florida this January, you may already be aware of this. For those of you who are not AIA members, or who spent the majority of winter under a foot of snow, I have some news to share.
At the 16th Annual Automated Imaging Association (AIA) Business Conference, held at the end of January in Orlando, Don Cochran, chairman and CEO of Pressco Technology Inc., received this year's AIA Award. The annual award honors one industry leader for outstanding contributions in promoting market acceptance of industrial and/or scientific imaging.
The AIA board of directors elected Michael Cyros, in the machine vision industry since 1987 and now president of Allied Vision Technologies Inc., as AIA president for 2008. He succeeds John Merva, who served as president for three years. It sounds like AIA will be in good hands.
Vision Shows
Though I missed the AIA conference, I am looking forward to my next vision event: The Vision Show in Boston, June 10 to 12, now in its 11th year. The show was last held in Boston in May 2006.
I seem to recall a lot of rain during that last show, along with a dessert-based restaurant, Finale, inside my hotel. All four of their locations are in Massachusetts, so plan your visit accordingly.
For those heading to Machine Vision China, March 20 to 22, in Shanghai, I’m sure you will learn a lot. And despite the distance, North American vision experts are sure to see some familiar faces. This year AIA will offer a special machine vision fundamentals training session, led by Valerie Bolhouse, a machine vision expert formerly at Ford Motor Co.
March Edition
For vision answers delivered to your door, this month’s Vision & Sensors offers another Q&A section to solve your specific vision challenges. If we haven’t answered your specific vision query, all you have to do is ask. Send your vision questions to [email protected]
And if you have all the answers, we would love to hear from you too. Please let us know if you have a successful application story or would like to share a new technology.
This issue contains information on cameras, sensors and basic machine vision structure. In designing an industrial machine vision system, one of the most important decisions is whether to use a digital or analog camera. Petko Dinev of Imperx details the differences and how to determine which one may be right for your application.
In “Six Steps to Sensor Success,” Michael Montgomery from Keyence explains how to select a laser displacement sensor. “By following these six simple guidelines,” he says, “not only can a more educated decision on choosing a laser displacement sensor be made, but you could save yourself and some unsuspecting application engineer some unnecessary grief.”
Sebastian Bollhorst and Xiao Sun of The Imaging Source provide application answers, explaining the basic structure of machine vision applications.
In addition, this edition contain news-find out who is doing what-along with an automotive case study and vision products.
As always, more information can be found at www.visionsensorsmag.com or in our e-newsletters.
Until then, see you in Boston. Bring an umbrella-and your sweet tooth.
Michelle Bangert, Managing Editor
[email protected]
