Imaging and Video Equipment Reference Materials
Technical Articles
Reference Articles 501 - 600 of 791
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What is Topway Smart LCD Module?
Description: "Show this interface", "Update that value on screen", "User's input is" ... Smart LCD module introduces high-level programming capabilities, and encapsulates all display logic. No more pixel drawing. ...
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All Keyed Up: Quality Inspection for Keyboards & Backlit Characters
From: Radiant Vision SystemsDescription: Todays consumers expect the highest quality from devices like smartphones, televisions and laptops-and not only for diplay screens the but for keyboards. Manufacturers of laptops and keyboards need to ...
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Case Study: How Omni-channel Retail Chains can use Image-based Identification to Digitize Package Attributes
From: SICKDescription: Warehouses that used to focus on replenishing retail stores with pallet-sized shipments have transformed into fulfillment centers adept at shipping e-commerce orders direct to consumers and store ...
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Proven Collision Prevention on AGVs
From: SICKDescription: The future is here and Industry 4.0 applications have become a reality. The reliable control of mobile platforms is an important part of this development. Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are ...
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Classification of LCD Panels
Description: Everyday, most of us will look at a LCD screen at least once. Different types of LCD panels have different characteristics. ...
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BP's New Interactive Gas Pump
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I don't know about you, but I actually don't mind a little peace and quiet when I'm pumping gas. But with BP's latest development, going to the gas station may turn into a whole new interactive ...
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LCD Touch Screen Comparison
Description: Touch screens have become very commonplace in our day-to-day lives. Devices using touch panels to enable user interaction without the use of keyboard or mouse. But do you know there are couple ...
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Not Your Great-Great-Grandmother's Player Piano
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: A friend of mine recently received an invitation to attend a demo of the Steinway Spirio, a high-res player piano. Anyway, my friend wasn't able to go and see Spirio for herself, but she thought I ...
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Who'd Pay $3,250 for a Robot to Carry their Groceries?
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I'm an overall tech person, with a longtime interest in robotics. So I find the growing number of new robotics applications - medical, manufacturing, assistive, even some of those built for a less ...
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AMETEK Surface Vision Supports Increased Production of High-Quality Protective Medical Equipment
From: AMETEK Surface VisionDescription: AMETEK Surface Vision is helping nonwoven material manufacturers meet increased demands for the production of personal protective equipment (PPE). ...
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Designing a Vision System
Description: A Comprehensive Guide to the Technical Requirements for Building a Vision System for Your Unique Imaging Application ...
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How Imaging with Ultra Violet Light Reveals Hidden Details
Description: By using camera filters to accomplish Ultra Violet (UV) imaging, more information and details outside of the visible spectrum can be revealed that can benefit a variety of imaging applications. ...
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Maximizing Camera Performance with Filters
Description: Understand Filter Types and their Usefulness in Various Imaging Applications ...
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Six Optical Aberrations that Could be Impacting Your Vision System
Description: This blog post focuses on six optical aberrations, how they occur, and how to prevent them / reduce their negative impacts on your vision system. ...
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The Most Important Camera Parameters for Aerial Imaging
Description: Important camera parameters to consider when selecting components to build an aerial imaging system ...
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Using a Single Versus Multiple Cameras for Aerial Imaging
Description: Understand the advantages of using multiple cameras for aerial imaging ...
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Eye Spy
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Even if we keep it relatively simple by using the same password - or variants of it - for multiple purposes, or we use some sort of single-sign on application, it's still hard and irritating to keep ...
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Once Again, We Revisit PTC
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Wednesday, October 5, 2016 Once again, there's been a train accident which, if there'd been Positive Train Control (PTC) in use, might have been avoided. So once again, we're revisiting PTC. ...
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Engineers as Dreamers
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: At the heart of pretty much every engineer I know - and I know a lot of engineers - there's a tinkerer, an inventor, a dreamer. It's just the way we think and operate. So I very much enjoyed an ...
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Tech Takes on the Coronavirus
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: It's probably safe to say that one of the things that's first and foremost on all our minds these days is the coronavirus pandemic. And it's not just on our minds, but in our everyday lives that are ...
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Cutting Down on Food Waste
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: It's something that I'm pretty sure we've all been guilty of. Our shopping carts are bigger than our stomachs, and as much as we think we're going to use every last bit of what we put in those carts, ...
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Mapping Out Autonomous Driving
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: As someone who has always enjoyed driving, I have mixed emotions about the pending arrival of autonomous cars. On the one hand, I'm intrigued by the use of technology - all those embedded systems! On ...
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Robotic Technology Comes to the World of Furniture
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Dating back to my graduate school days - now a few decades in the rear-view mirror - I've had a long-running interest in robotics, and I'm always on the lookout for new applications. One that I came ...
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The Internet of Tomatoes
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: As we're nearing that great time of year when local farm stands (and neighbors' backyard gardens) have local tomatoes, I couldn't resist what appears to be an advertorial by Analog Devices (a.k.a. ...
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Improving Imaging System Performance with Lens Aperture Optimization
Description: The human eye has an iris and a pupil which is the opening that allows light to pass through. A similar system operates within a camera lens, but instead, the iris is made of pieces of metal ...
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Minimizing Spherical Aberration: Make the Right Lens Choice for Your Imaging System
Description: Even with sophisticated lens systems, it can be difficult to get an entire image in focus. With any spherical surface, light will bend differently depending where on the surface the light is passing ...
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Sensitivity vs. Frame Rate in Low Light Imaging
Description: When selecting a digital microscope camera for applications where a live preview in real time is crucial, such as electrophysiology, the sensitivity of the camera is a key factor as it can often ...
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USB and GIGE: The Evolution of Camera Interfaces for Imaging Systems
Description: With camera sensors being able to transfer more and more data, choosing the right interface is crucial for any imaging application. Two popular interfaces are USB and GigE. Their cables and connectors ...
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Advanced Flow Meters Save Millions in Maintenance Costs and Non-revenue Water Losses
Description: At one of the largest municipal water treatment departments in the United States, 1,400 employees work hard to keep clean water flowing through the taps of households and businesses over a ...
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Meters Monitor Flow and Provide Pump Protection
Description: Siemens answers with SITRANS FS230 clamp-on meter. ...
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Pushback on the IoT
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I guess it was inevitable. After all the hype. After all those forecasts of kabillions of connected devices. After all the cool videos showing smart everythings. There seems to be a bit of a backlash ...
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What's Next for Newspapers?
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: We've been hearing for years that newspapers and magazines will be dying out, any day now. We want our news in real-time, and we want it in video format. Print? That's for old timers with time to read ...
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"The Fantastic Voyage" may be coming true
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: There's an old sci-fi movie, from the 60's, called Fantastic Voyage. The plotline has a scientist defecting to the West, who's shot in an assassination attempt and needs a blood clot removed from his ...
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A little something for the dog days of summer
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: As a car guy (and a tech guy), I often find myself blogging about topics related to automotive technology. And then sometimes I remember that I'm also a dog guy (and a tech guy), and I start noticing ...
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DSP's in the news. (Seems like it's been a while...)
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: At Critical Link, we're - of course - quite partial to DSP. Many of our clients have deployed System on Modules that contain DSP. And way back in the day (about a decade back in the day), our original ...
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Technologically-Weaponized Martial Arts
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I wouldn't have come up with the idea, but when I think about it, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with the idea of a "new combat sport and entertainment experience." That someone ...
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Don't know about you, but I never get sick of car talk
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I'm a car guy. I'm also a tech guy. So when I see a story that combines car and tech, I'm always interested - even if, these days, such stories do seem to come fast and furious. The recent ...
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The Internet of Fishing Fleets
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: When we think about the Internet of Things (IoT), for most of us, the first thought is probably a Nest thermostat or some other connected appliance or home device, or a fitness application like ...
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How Smart is your City?
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: One of the most interesting and rapidly growing application areas for the Internet of Things (IoT) is the development of smart cities. Smart cities use sensors to collect data, and then use that data ...
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Fast as Lightning! That would be Li-Fi
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I've been hearing a lot about Li-Fi lately, which is getting plenty of hype in the tech press. And why wouldn't it be getting hyped? It promises to be 100x faster than standard Wi-Fi speeds. Which ...
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Neuro Computing. (This is Some Pretty Powerful Stuff.)
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Many years ago, I heard it said that, at the time of the introduction of the steam engine in England, the changes over just one generation were so profound that a parent born before the Industrial ...
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Dissolvable Electronics. (Wow!)
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I'm out in San Francisco this week for Photonics West, and, while on the elliptical in my hotel the other day, I caught up on some of my reading. One of the most interesting articles I came across was ...
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Driverless Cars: Not Quite Ready for Winter Weather
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: This is Upstate New York, so it's too early to call game over with respect to snowfall. It's only late February, after all, and we've been known to have snow in May. Still, the corner has been turned. ...
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CES 2016 - in case you missed it
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: As most "tech watchers" are no doubt aware, early January always means the Consumer Electronics Show, held each year in Las Vegas. Critical Link doesn't tend to get involved on the consumer-side, but ...
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Tis the Season for Tech Toys
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: With our youngest just off to college, we're well beyond Santa at our house, but I still like to do a bit of virtual window shopping for toys, especially to see what's out there that appeals to my ...
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Securing the IoT
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: One of the downsides of the Internet of Things (IoT) is the often flimsy security that comes along with them. This is especially true on the consumer side. Before we ever heard of the IoT, there was ...
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The Kitchen of the Future (According to IKEA)
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I recently came across an article (published last spring) on IKEA's "Concept Kitchen 2025", a collaboration between IKEA, IDEO and some university student designers. It's all a bit Jetsons, but quite ...
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Electronics obsolescence and military technology
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Today, we celebrate Veterans Day. So now is as good a time as any to focus for a bit on military technology. An article by Editorial Director John McHale in Military Embedded Systems 2015 Resource ...
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Kangaroo Collision Avoidance
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: To me, kangaroos are one of those goofy-looking animals that manage to put a smile on your face. But if you live - and drive - in Australia, they're not a laughing matter. In fact, it's reported that ...
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Lots of technology behind the moon landing
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: With the celebration of July's 50th anniversary of the moon landing, I've been reading a lot about Apollo 11, especially the technology involved in it all. What's most interesting is how primitive by ...
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More on ARM and the Internet of Things
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: In September, I had a post on ARM and the Internet of Things (IoT). We're interested in ARM, of course, because we have a number of ARM-based SOMs - the MitySOM-5CSx, the MitySOM-335x, and the ...
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Additional Solutions for Collision Avoidance with Indoor AGVs
From: SICKDescription: A common problem with some indoor AGVs is that sometimes using just a safety-rated sensor, like a safety laser scanner, doesn't provide enough coverage, particularly above the laser scan plane. But ...
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Smart Production Lines in Automotive Industry Use Cobots
From: SICKDescription: Much like other industries, the automotive industry is changing. With the increase in the variety of vehicle models, variants, and derivatives being produced and the shorter product life cycles in the ...
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28,000 Sensors? That's one really smart building
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: The Edge in Amsterdam is the world's greenest building. BREEAM - the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology, a British rating system - awarded The Edge a sustainability ...
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One step at a time: how Jawbone counts steps
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: For my fitness tracker, I have a Jawbone UP3, which bills itself as "the most advanced tracker you can buy." I like it, but I'm still waiting for some of the more advanced functions that they promised ...
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Thanks for the memories, implants
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: For a number of years, researchers have been working on brain implants that will help with memory loss. Now it's been reported that devices that can restore memory-generation capability for those ...
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TI Announces Sitara AM57x
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Don't know if you caught TI's announcement last week, but there's a new kid in town in their Sitara processor family. ...
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Four Ways to Use General's New Video Inspection Equipment as a Marketing Tool
From: General Pipe CleanersDescription: When thinking about marketing tools, the first thoughts that come to mind are often things like social media, advertising, logos and promotions. But what about the tools in your truck? How can your ...
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Quantifying Human Perception in Cosmetic Surface Inspection
From: Radiant Vision SystemsDescription: While addressing fatigue issues associated with human visual inspectors, traditional machine vision systems have not typically been able to match their visual acuity when it comes to spotting subtle ...
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When Automated Inspection Meets Human Vision
From: Radiant Vision SystemsDescription: Radiant's Advanced Vision solutions are a new class of automated visual inspection technology. Our approach combines the benefits of automated machine vision inspection systems with the power of true ...
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ARM and the Internet of Things
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: From Critical Link's point of view, one of the most exciting things about the Internet of Things (IoT) is that it's pretty much synonymous with embedded technology. And from Critical Link's point of ...
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Table Tracking Technology Comes to Panera
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Over the summer, I took my kids out to a weekend breakfast at a local Panera. If you've never been to a Panera, they've always (in my experience) had a system where, after you placed your order, they ...
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To boldly go where no man* has gone before
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Somewhere along the line, I bookmarked an article on a robot used to study volcanoes. I finally got around to reading it, and thought it would make for an interesting blog post. So here goes. NASA's ...
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Obsolescence
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I recently heard that CVS will be phasing out its one-hour film processing. Walgreen's is doing the same, if it hasn't done so already. Let's face it, most pictures these days are taken on a ...
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The Impact of Robots on Development
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Regular followers of the Critical Link blog will know that I've been interested in robots since my grad school days at UMass, when I got to work with a robot named Harvey. So, naturally, I enjoyed a ...
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Two New CMOS Consortia Worth Mentioning
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: There's some interesting news on the CMOS front that I wanted to share with you. This past May, in Europe, two different consortia began work on CMOS image sensor projects. ...
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You Gotta Know When to Hold 'Em
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I'm always on the lookout for interesting and novel uses of technology - especially when it involves technology that Critical Link works with. So naturally, I was drawn to an article I saw a few weeks ...
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Drone to the Rescue! Literally.
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: We keep hearing that, any day now, drones will be making our Amazon deliveries, dropping off that pair of sneakers, those earbuds we couldn't live another day without. In truth, most of our consumer ...
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How technology saved - and will restore - Notre Dame Cathedral
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Like most of the world, I was saddened by the devastating fire that did so much damage to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last month. You don't have to have been to this magnificent building, nor do you ...
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Verifying Accuracy of In-Line Flowmeters in Waste-Water Treatment Facility
From: Transcat, Inc.Description: There is a need for an easy-to-installed portable flowmeter to verify the accuracy and function of the permanently installed flowmeters. The volumetric flow must be recorded over time. This data can ...
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Firefighting and the IoT
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: With a son who's been a volunteer firefighter and EMT since he's been in high school and is now a professional engineer working in fire equipment sales and support, you can best believe that I was ...
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Improving automotive safety. (I'm all for it.)
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: We seem to have our share of automotive-related posts on the Critical Link blog, but that's because there's so much interesting technology going into cars these days. And it's technology that most of ...
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Proof of Extra-Terrestrials? Not This Time.
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I'm always on the lookout for stories about the different ways image processing is put to work, but an article I saw a couple of months back in Vision Systems Design was one of the most interesting. ...
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What's for dinner? Whatever robo-chef's making
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Before my wife and I know it, we're going to be empty-nesters, and that will mean a bit less pressure to get a good meal on the table every evening. I was thinking that maybe we'd start eating out ...
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Is it just me?
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I recently had a diagnostic ultrasound, and while I was laying there on the table looking at the fuzzy, grainy image, something occurred to me. And that something was that the image quality doesn't ...
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Play Ball!
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I'm not much of a baseball fan, but I do know that it's the most data-intensive sport, and has been recording just about everything that can be recorded for an awful long time. And now Major League ...
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What's the Point? Learn About Point Level Sensors
From: BinMaster, Inc.Description: Point level sensors are an important component in controlling production processes. When used in conjunction with an alarm, such as a horn or light, they make workplaces safer. ...
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When Perfection Matters: Using Photometry-based Imaging Systems for Cosmetic Surface Inspection
From: Radiant Vision SystemsDescription: Today's electronics consumers expect a flawless device right out of the box. Scratches, dents, smudges or other imperfections can damage your brand's reputation or result in costly returns. ...
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Advanced Vision: How Photometry-based Imaging is Revolutionizing Surface Inspection, Glass and Particle Inspection, and Assembly Verification
From: Radiant Vision SystemsDescription: Are you facing a tough visual inspection challenge with your devices? Advanced vision solutions leverage photometry-based imaging systems to apply higher resolution, dynamic range, and signal-to-noise ...
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How the MityDSP L138+FPGA SOM is Being Used
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: One of the things that keeps life interesting at Critical Link is seeing how our customers are utilizing our system-on-modules in their products. While the MityDSP-L138+FPGA - part of our OMAP-L138 ...
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That Self-driving Car in the Rear-view Mirror?
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I saw a recent article in The New York Times in which Elon Musk (of Telsa fame) announced that by summer, his company would be bringing "autonomous technology" (i.e., the self-driving car) to market ...
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Where's your E-trash is Going? Trash Track Knows
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: A while back now, I caught an episode of Inside Man on CNN. This is a show in which Morgan Spurlock goes behind the scenes to explore some topic from the inside out. (If the name sounds familiar, ...
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What's new in HUD? Microsoft's HoloLens.
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: A recent article on TechCrunch caught my eye. As, I guess, it was intended to. The article was on the HoloLens, Microsoft's entry into the "facespace" space, which lands somewhere between what Oculus ...
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"The Internet of Things that See"
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: As more and more things are added to the Internet of Things (IoT), more and more gets written about it. With the embedded technology that Critical Link provides, we've been part of the IoT even before ...
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Laughing Matter
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: There are a lot of interesting applications for facial recognition software, but I have to say one of the most interesting (if not necessarily the most useful) is one that a Barcelona comedy club was ...
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Pepperoni? Mushroom? The Eyes Have It.
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: At Critical Link, we have a lot of interest in vision technology. Our MityCAM and MityCCD cameras are a key part of our business. And I just, in general, like seeing new applications of vision ...
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Robots in the vineyard
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Regular blog readers may recall that I have an interest in robotics. Among other posts, last March I wrote about office robots, and in May I had a post about robots that do the milking on dairy farms. ...
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Finding Out the Hard Way
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Because Critical Link does so much with vision systems, I'm always interested in camera applications. On a recent European trip, I noticed that they have a lot of traffic cameras on their highways. ...
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Heads-Up Technology
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Between last week's post and this one, it's looking like December is starting out as Automotive Month here at Critical Link. This is really not surprising, as so many cool embedded and vision systems ...
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That is one massive HD display
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: I was in New York City over Thanksgiving and while I was there, I couldn't help but notice the massive new LED screen in Times Square. Did I say massive? ...
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Cape Vincent Lighthhouse
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: The other day, I happened across an article in Vision Systems Design on how CMOS imagers are trying to increase the dynamic range they support so that they can capture images under both day and night ...
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Schrödinger's cat (sort of)
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: So while I'm always thinking about things related to vision, this week I'm really thinking about things related to vision. And while I was thinking about things related to vision, I was also catching ...
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Critical Link in space
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: With so much recent media focus on consumer technology - think iPhone 6 - and wearable technology - think Apple Watch - I sometimes have to bring my mind back down to earth to think about the types of ...
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Wearable Technology: Ring Theory Puts a Ring on It
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about wearable technology. Shortly after the post appeared, I got an e-mail from a friend in Boston who wrote to me about her wearable tech: a pass for using the "T", ...
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People Counting
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Last month, on a trip to New Hampshire, I stopped at a state welcome center, and encountered a vision-based people counter. ...
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Digital Technology Comes to the NFL (sort of)
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: With the NFL regular season about the kick-off (literally), I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about some new technology which will be on the field, or at least on the sidelines, for the ...
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OnSemi Makes Some Moves
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: When it comes to image sensors, ON Semiconductor seems to be on a bit of an acquisition tear. (Acquisitions are nothing new for ON Semi, as you can see in this timeline.) In April, the company ...
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All Fired Up
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Although I'm not going to run out and buy one - I'm happy (appy?) enough with my LG G2 (I pitched my iPhone 5 two weeks ago) - like everyone else who loves technology, I was certainly curious about ...
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Forget a better mousetrap, what the world needs is a better battery
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: In a recent Atlantic Monthly, there was a brief, but interesting, article on batteries, in which journalist James Fallows asked Nobel-winning physicist Steven Chu and Yi Cui, who is a battery ...
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Robotic milking. (Yes, technology is everywhere.)
From: Critical Link, LLCDescription: Even though I live in upstate New York, where there are plenty of dairy farms, I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about where the milk on my cereal and the cream in my coffee comes from, other ...