In the United States the unemployment rate is at its lowest in nearly fifty years. As a result, the need to automate bin picking is urgent. In the U.S., where 38% of the manufacturing labor force moves parts between bins and manufacturing machines, 500,000 jobs remain unfilled. [...]
New and expanding ideas of how we look at things is growing almost at an exponential pace. Engineers, scientists and designers are always looking for ways to see things we’ve never seen before. One piece of this emerging technology is what’s known as Time-of-Flight (ToF) cameras. The easiest way of [...]
Recent studies have shown that a wide variety of such contaminants exist at trace concentrations in all water supplies and in the air. Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) is a method of disinfection that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet (UV-C) light to kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their [...]
Ultraviolet or UV energy is found in the electromagnetic spectrum between visible light and x-rays and can best be described as invisible radiation. In order to kill microorganisms, the UV rays must actually strike the cell. UV, or ultraviolet light, disinfects waste water by damaging the DNA and RNA of [...]
Laser diode collimators are used to collimate the highly divergent beam that is emitted by a laser diode. It consists of a laser diode holder, a collimating lens holder, and a high numerical aperture (NA) collimating lens, with a focal length f. The lens is housed in a threaded receptacle [...]
CCTV security and/or video are quickly becoming the most efficient and cost-effective way to provide security in and around the workplace. The highly advanced technology of the modern security camera allows businesses to lower cost and risk by protecting their employees and assets through continuous monitoring of their facilities, grounds [...]
Radiological x-rays, ultrasounds and NMR’s are all forms of medical imaging that have traditionally required the flexibility of the human eye to detect anomalies within the human body. Since a computer is confused by busy backgrounds and image quality issues, it is difficult for a traditional machine vision algorithm to [...]
In most industries, barcodes of one type or another can be found. Barcode applications have transformed the face of manufacturing, processing, and tracking. Industries like food and beverage, retail, medical, pharmaceutical, electronics, distribution, aerospace and automotive industries, to name a few, rely on barcodes in one way or another. They [...]
Various infrared and thermal-imaging devices help detect covert threats, objects, and suspects. Unlike standard image intensifiers that amplify low levels of light, thermal imagers are more sensitive to infrared (IR) light. Therefore, they are not susceptible to ‘blooming’, which is a condition caused when a bright-light source relative to the [...]
In April astronomers announced what is quite possibly, the most extraordinary piece of scientific news ever. They had at last captured an image of the unobservable, always illusive, black hole – cosmic abyss so deep and dense that not even light can escape it. […]
