Good Images Make it Easier for Vision Tools to Work

I tell my customers that a critical factor to consider when creating an efficient machine vision solution is capturing good images. You'd be amazed at how much more effective your machine vision applications are when you start with quality images up front.

The rule of thumb for capturing high-quality images is to create a vision system that delivers proper focus and illumination. Images with poor contrast and uneven illumination require much more effort for the CPU which ultimately increases the processing time.

Consider these two images:

An In-Sight® vision system will actually locate the plus signs in both images. However, the repeatability of the job will be lower for the top image due to the low contrast and the image on the bottom will have a more accurate pass/fail rate due to the high contrast. Also, a variation within the environment around the part should not affect the results of your vision system setup. If you have properly controlled illumination, the images should run through the machine vision inspection with ease and with reliability.

There are a number of ways to improve image quality and make your vision system work faster and more reliably. Image pre-processing tools, lighting, optical filters, and lenses can all make huge impacts on the inspection and defect detection performance of your vision system. We have a number of Expert Guides and On-Demand webinars that answer most commonly-asked questions.