Barcelona, 21 June, 2021. The EMVA today announced that the new release 4.0 of the EMVA 1288 Standard for objective characterization of industrial cameras, which is successfully used worldwide, has become effective. The release takes into account the rapid development of camera and image sensor technology. The documents of the standard are published here. The EMVA 1288 standard, hosted by EMVA, is part of the global G3 standardization initiative in which the five leading machine vision organizations A3, CMVU, EMVA, JIIA, and VDMA cooperate.

Until the previous Release 3.1 dated back December 2016, the application of the EMVA 1288 standard with a simple linear model was limited to cameras with a linear response and without any pre-processing. While this model is being continued with some improvements in the ’Release 4.0 Linear’, a new module ‘Release 4.0 General’ has been added in the latest release. With it, the characterization of a non-linear camera or a camera with unknown pre-processing is possible even without any model due to the universal system-theoretical approach of the EMVA 1288 standard. Just as with the linear camera model, all application-related quality parameters can be measured in this way. With both modules “Linear” and “General” the same measurements are performed. Depending on the camera characteristics, the proper evaluation either according to the linear or general model is applied.

In addition, Release 4.0 includes numerous expansions to characterize the latest generation of image sensors and cameras according to the application. The most important of these are:

• Extended wavelength range from UV to SWIR range.
• Raw data of any given image acquisition modality can now be characterized according to the standard.
• The versatile and universal analysis tools of the EMVA 1288 standard can also be applied to quantities calculated and derived from multiple channels. For polarization image sensors, these are, for example, the degree of polarization and the polarization angle.
• Inhomogeneities are measured in detail and now decomposed into column, row, and pixel variations. They can now be determined with a new method at all intensity levels from just two captured images.
• Optionally, cameras with optics or with illumination as given by the position of the exit pupil of the optics for which the image sensor was designed can be measured according to the standard. Thus, the standard is now also suitable for image sensors with pixels shifted towards the edge.
• A more suitable measure for the linearity of the characteristic curve is introduced.

Along with the new version of the standard, the EMVA has prepared an extensive training program. Two- or three-day training programs for the new Release 4.0 will be held regularly in near future in cooperation with EMVA member companies. The new training program will also continue the successfully introduced certification program at expert level. This is intended for anyone who wants to acquire the necessary knowledge to perform EMVA 1288 measurements themselves and understand the measurement results in detail, whether in the development of new cameras, in quality control, or to understand exactly how a camera behaves for a specific application.

About EMVA

The European Machine Vision Association is a non-for-profit and non-commercial association representing the Machine Vision industry in Europe. The association was founded in 2003 to promote the development and use of vision technology in all sectors, and represents members from within Europe, North America, and Asia. The EMVA is open for all types of organizations having a stake in machine vision, computer vision, embedded vision or imaging technologies: manufacturers, system and machine builders, integrators, distributors, consultancies, research organizations and academia. All members – as the 100% owners of the association – benefit from the networking, cooperation, standardization, and the numerous and diverse activities of the EMVA. The EMVA is the host of four global machine vision standards: The two widely established standards GenICam and EMVA 1288 as well as the two standardization initiatives Open Optics Camera Interface (OOCI) and Embedded Vision Interface Standard (emVision).

Key Takeaways and Conference Attendees’ Feedback
Next physical 20th EMVA Business Conference to take place 12-14 May, 2022

Barcelona, 18 June, 2021. With a participation of 135 participants from 23 nations the 19th EMVA Business Conference Special Edition 2021 took place online last week. A total of 20 speeches, two fireside chats and two CEO/Management panel discussions covered virtually all current actual economic and technical topics that the machine vision world currently deals with. During the individual B2B sessions about 90 virtual bilateral video meetings were arranged between conference attendees before and after the conference program in the afternoons.

Positive Feedback to Online Format
In their feedback almost 95 percent of participants appreciated the EMVA’s decision to offer the conference in online format instead of cancel it. Here’s a few of the personal comments given about the conference:

“The best thing you can do to learn and be inspired by the innovative trends in the world of machine vision in a very condensed way.”
“As always excellent organization, great job everybody, especially in such difficult times!”
“Again although strange not to be face to face the EMVA did not disappoint with the organization of the event.”
“Thank you for putting on a great event and adjusting the timing to accommodate North American attendees.”

Key Takeaways
The top-class panel on the second conference day discussed the current status of Industry 4.0 and stated the term Industry 4.0 has already become a standard itself with AI and machine vision as core components such as in generating digital twins. However, industrial business models are often not as disruptive as in the end consumer business e.g. where the smartphone triggered a paradigm shift; but would rather put effort into improving business models instead of new business models. According to the panelists more data also requires increasing use of AI and digitalization automatically contributes to decarbonization. Vison as it was stated can provide the right data at the right time to make the right decision in Industry 4.0.
AI being a megatrend in the machine vision industry was present in various technical parts of the conference sessions. The keynote on the second day given by IBM Benelux CTO Wouter Denayer reflected on the current developments pledged to change the fundamental structure of neural networks towards Neural Symbolic AI Systems. Simply making networks bigger would not help in future and the increase in accuracy for training AI is no longer equivalent to the amount of energy input and pollution which makes carbon footprint of AI unjustifiable. Or as EMVA President Chris Yates put in his conference wrap-up: “With great power comes great responsibility”.
This conference also provided room to put early-stage innovators in the focus: No less than six companies in the initial or post star-up stage presented their innovations which circled around the big topic AI and Deep Learning focusing on logistics and complex inspection tasks on the factory floor. Other new approaches were presented in the area of feature-based and variable density 3D scanning; contactless traceability of items with a digital image; and combining brain and AI into an innovative decision-making system.
The CEO Panel Discussion on the pandemic impacts for the machine vision industry found that vision tech overall coped fairly well in the crisis due to its vertical market focus. Business expectations of the company leaders from Stemmer Imaging, Basler and Tiama Inspection were even that pre-pandemic business level can be achieved again within the current year 2021. One obstacle, however, could be the lasting material shortage which affects virtually all components. In addition, Covid-19 taught that more elements of value generation need to move closer to the customer in all regions of business activity enabling to react on-site. The crisis was a big push for remote maintenance and webinar business meetings saving travel costs, which will keep physical meetings lower even when restrictions are lifted.
In another presentation the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) announced the launch of the first industry association led Photonics index. The basket is composed of 65 public listed companies, quite a number of them from the machine vision world. The index is an excellent opportunity to reach out to the investors’ community.
Messe Stuttgart then gave an inside in how the trade show organizer suffered in the pandemic. Most important for the machine vision industry, Messe Stuttgart asked for some more patience regarding the final decision if VISION 2021 will take place as currently the stakeholders are interviewed; with so far rather good industry sentiment but mixed company feedback when it comes to exhibit.
The session on hyperspectral imaging summarized that HSI technology is scaling up quickly in the market as it has become easier to use and more affordable. It was pointed out that with hyperspectral imaging an additional layer of information regarding the nature and consistency of an object.
Machine vision in China was in the focus of the second fireside chat. Electronics and Semiconductor are the largest industrial user sectors of machine vision in China, according to CMVU president Isabel Yang. The country experiences a huge 30 percent increase in business after the crisis, mainly pushed by a rising level of automation. 3D imaging finds a lot of attention which led to the formation of a 3D standard group. Also IR imaging gains attention.

The next physical 20th EMVA Business Conference will take place 12-14 May 2022 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

About EMVA

The European Machine Vision Association is a non-for-profit and non-commercial association representing the Machine Vision industry in Europe. The association was founded in 2003 to promote the development and use of vision technology in all sectors, and represents members from within Europe, North America, and Asia. The EMVA is open for all types of organizations having a stake in machine vision, computer vision, embedded vision or imaging technologies: manufacturers, system and machine builders, integrators, distributors, consultancies, research organizations and academia. All members – as the 100% owners of the association – benefit from the networking, cooperation, standardization, and the numerous and diverse activities of the EMVA. The EMVA is the host of four global machine vision standards: The two widely established standards GenICam and EMVA 1288 as well as the two standardization initiatives Open Optics Camera Interface (OOCI) and Embedded Vision Interface Standard (emVision).