Commercial machine vision was introduced in the 1970's. To this point it has not been used widely for automation in manufacturing due to performance, complexity, and cost issues. Most commercial vision systems are based on video technology with separate cameras, frame grabbers, digitizers and processors. Reliance on video technology limits performance and requires expensive, complete architectures. The maximum video frame rate is 30 per second and the average complete system costs over $20,000. In 1991 DVT introduced the first commercial Integrated Vision System. The new gray scale vision technology is simple, compact, and inexpensive. Priced under $2,000., this technology packages the functionality of commercial gray scale vision systems into one device, the size of a book, weighing less than 2 pounds. The improvements offered by this new technology are changing the market for vision as many more applications have become economically feasible. This research will develop a color integrated vision system. Based on currently available CCDs, the research will result in development of a new technology for directly digitizing and processing color optical information. Devices based on this technology will provide the ability to perform low cost, high speed quality control and verification for automated manufacturing.
