Call for Exploratory Group participation to all sensor and camera manufacturers,
silicon vendors, and software developers working on vision and sensor processing

Barcelona, 22 February, 2021. Today, the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA), the leading European industry association dedicated to vision technology, and The Khronos® Group, an open consortium creating graphics and compute interoperability standards, jointly announce the formation of an Embedded Camera API Exploratory Group, open to all at no cost, to explore industry interest in the creation of open royalty-free API standards for controlling embedded cameras and sensors. All participants will be able to discuss use cases and requirements for new interoperability standards to accelerate market growth and reduce development costs in embedded markets using vision and sensor processing and associated acceleration. If the Exploratory Group reaches significant consensus then EMVA and Khronos will work to initiate the proposed standardization initiatives at the appropriate organization.

All sensor and camera manufacturers, silicon vendors, and software developers working on vision and sensor processing are invited to participate in this initiative. More details and instructions for joining the group are here.

The Embedded Camera API Exploratory Group has been created in response to industry requests. Increasingly, camera sensors are being tightly integrated with image, vision and inferencing accelerators in self-contained systems. Innovation and efficiency in the embedded vision market is becoming constrained by the lack of open cross-vendor camera control API standards to reduce development and integration costs of multiple advanced sensors and cameras. A consistent set of interoperability standards and guidelines for embedded cameras and sensors could streamline deployment by manufacturers and system integrators by enabling control of a wide range of camera sensors, depth sensors, camera arrays and ISP hardware to generate sophisticated image streams for downstream processing by diverse accelerators.

This Exploratory Group will use Khronos’ proven framework for new initiatives in collaboration with the EMVA. Any companies, universities, consortiums, open-source participants, and industry experts who are willing to sign an NDA are welcome to join, at no cost. All participants will have an equal voice in exploring industry needs for and benefits of creating a consensus to create a Scope of Work (SOW) document describing the objectives and high-level direction of standardization initiatives of value to the industry. The Exploratory Group is expected to meet online over a period of several months starting on March 25, 2021.

Many industry leaders have indicated an interest in joining the Exploratory Group, including ALL3D, Almalence, AMD, Apertus, AREA, Arm, Cadence, Codeplay, Collabora, EA, Facebook, Google, Holochip, HP, Huawei, LunarG, Mobica, NVIDIA, Oculus, OPPO, Qualcomm, RedHat, Texas Instruments, Ultraleap, and Valve from Khronos; as well as EMVA members and machine vision players such as Allied Vision, Basler AG, Baumer, MVTec, and Stemmer Imaging AG.

”We are delighted to work with Khronos on this initiative to commonly understand the industry needs for the future of embedded vision”, said Dr. Chris Yates, EMVA President. “Both the EMVA and the Khronos group have a well-established history of standardization developments which enable industry to develop new products more simply, whilst ensuring friction is reduced in the market. This Exploratory Group is an excellent approach to understanding broader industry needs and will bring together many companies and views in an open forum. We look forward to working closely with the Khronos Group and welcoming all new and existing participants to this important initiative for the vision community.”

“Judging by the significant industry interest, the time seems right to organize an effort around identifying and aligning on the need for interoperability APIs for embedded cameras and sensors. This is a topic that is very relevant to Khronos as our acceleration APIs, such as OpenCL™, SYCL™, and OpenVX™ are often used to accelerate sophisticated sensor stream processing,” said Neil Trevett, Khronos Group president. “Our work is also very complementary to EMVA, and we are delighted that the two organizations are working together to bring a meaningful quorum from diverse parts of the industry into this cooperative exploratory process.”

All Exploratory Group discussions will be covered by a simple project NDA to encourage open discussions. The Group is open to all proposals and relevant topics but will not discuss detailed technical design contributions to protect participants’ intellectual property (IP). If a SOW is agreed, EMVA and Khronos will work to initiate the standardization work at the most suitable host organizations or open source projects, using those organizations’ normal collaborative agreements and IP frameworks.

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 has been founded in 2003 in Barcelona by industry representatives from all over Europe as a network to promote the development and use of machine vision technology. 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 and the numerous and diverse activities of the EMVA. www.emva.org

About Khronos

The Khronos Group is an open, non-profit, member-driven consortium of over 150 industry-leading companies creating advanced, royalty-free, interoperability standards for 3D graphics, augmented and virtual reality, parallel programming, vision acceleration and machine learning. Khronos activities include 3D Commerce™, ANARI™, glTF™, NNEF™, OpenCL™, OpenGL®, OpenGL® ES, OpenVG™, OpenVX™, OpenXR™, SPIR-V™, SYCL™, Vulkan®, and WebGL™. Khronos members drive the development and evolution of Khronos specifications and are able to accelerate the delivery of cutting-edge platforms and applications through early access to specification drafts and conformance tests.
www.khronos.org

Khronos® and Vulkan® are registered trademarks, and ANARI™, WebGL™, glTF™, NNEF™, OpenVX™, SPIR™, SPIR-V™, SYCL™, OpenVG™, and 3D Commerce™ are trademarks of The Khronos Group Inc. OpenXR™ is a trademark owned by The Khronos Group Inc. and is registered as a trademark in China, the European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom. OpenCL™ is a trademark of Apple Inc. and OpenGL® is a registered trademark and the OpenGL ES™ and OpenGL SC™ logos are trademarks of Hewlett Packard Enterprise used under license by Khronos. All other product names, trademarks, and/or company names are used solely for identification and belong to their respective owners.

EMVA and EPIC sign Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen the Photonics and Machine Vision industries

Barcelona, 25 July 2020. The European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) and the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) signed a collaboration agreement on the last week of November 2020, bringing together members and knowledge to better serve and strengthen the Photonics and Machine Vision industries.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signature was publicly announced at the EPIC Online Technology Meeting on 3D Sensing on 23 November 2020. The collaboration between EMVA and EPIC is focused on cooperative activities involving continued industry endorsement of standards and supporting the development of an efficient and sustainable industry.

Driving the standards in machine vision technology

The partnership will encourage cooperation between the members, including participation at events, collaboration on information exchange and promotion, and advisory mandates to develop an efficient and sustainable industry. Dr. Jose Pozo, CTO of EPIC, said: “Having EMVA on board as a partner brings the opportunity to EPIC members to build potential collaborations and partnerships with the key players of the machine vision industry. The main goal of this cooperation is to facilitate the communication between different parts of the value chain towards building common voice for the interests of companies using machine vision technologies.”

Implementing agreements and standards for machine vision technology

“The collaboration with EPIC  supports our members and the wider Machine Vision industry by strengthing links across a broad value chain and increasing opportunities for collaboration” said Thomas Lübkemeier, General Manager at EMVA. “ At the same time, worldwide standards provide an important basis for industry growth, and we look forward to working with the extensive network of EPIC to support this topic.”

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 has been founded in 2003 in Barcelona by industry representatives from all over Europe as a network to promote the development and use of machine vision technology. 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 and the numerous and diverse activities of the EMVA. www.emva.org

About EPIC

The European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC), a membership-led non-profit industry association with over 600 members that promotes the sustainable development of organisations working in the field of photonics. Its members encompass the entire value chain from LED lighting, PV solar energy, Silicon photonics, Optical components, Lasers, Sensors, Displays, Projectors, Optic fiber, and other photonic related technologies. EPIC fosters a vibrant photonics ecosystem by maintaining a strong network and acting as a catalyst and facilitator for technological and commercial advancement. EPIC works closely with related industries, universities, and public authorities to build a more competitive photonics industrial sector, capable of both economic and technological growth in a highly competitive world-wide marketplace.

www.epic-assoc.com

Survey results on Covid-19 impacts on the machine vision industry

Barcelona, 19 July 2020.  During April and June 2020, the EMVA conducted a bipartite survey on the effects of the Covid-19 crisis for the machine vision industry. A standardized questionnaire was distributed by email to a wide range of industry participants, both EMVA member companies and from the wider industry.

The results were complemented and verified by a series of telephone interviews with senior managers and executives from selected companies representing as wide a cross section of the industry as possible.

The majority of participants expect a U-shaped economic development during and after the crisis. On average the survey participants anticipate the machine vision industry to contract by 17% in 2020. Customer industries related to health matters along with the food industry are expected to benefit from in the crisis while the automotive industry is seen to suffer most. Machine vision supply chains are not yet severely in danger.

Working from home is proving to be an efficient tool to maintain business operations, whereas trade shows and other business meeting opportunities are dearly missed. Although Covid-19 certainly places serious constraints to the overall economic outlook for many machine vision enterprises, participants of the survey have also identified possible opportunities for the machine vision industry arising from the global crisis.

Please get access to the full statement on the survey results via the download link.

About the European Machine Vision Association

The EMVA is a not for profit organization, open to all, which is owned by its members who represent over 130 companies, institutes, and organizations, originating from within Europe, North America, and Asia. The association seeks to represent the interests of its members and promote the vision industry in general, but also encourage cooperation and standardization. The EMVA hosts several important standards used throughout the machine vision industry including the GenICam series used to provide a consistent, device independent interface to machine vision hardware, the EMVA1288 standard used for bench-marking performance of industrial cameras, and the newly initiated Open Optics Camera Interface (OOCI) standard which addresses the connectivity of camera lenses within a machine vision system, and the new emVISION initiative addressing standardization within embedded vision systems. To find out more visit the web site www.emva.org.

Interactive online conference format attracts more than 130 participants

Barcelona, 09 July, 2020. The first ever virtual interactive EMVA Business Conference on 26 June attracted over 130 participants and received an overwhelmingly positive response to the online format, adopted this year as a consequence of recent Covid-19 travel and distancing restrictions. This sentiment is reflected in the following statements received from participants:

“Very well done! A major undertaking under difficult circumstances but a great success!I always get great value from EMVA events and this was no exception“ – Arwyn Roberts, Surface Inspection.

“Very well organized, easy to connect, and informative” – Clemence Boudot, ATD Electronique, France.

“The online conference was very well organized with all the infrastructure and ample Internet bandwidth. In particular I think that following the industry standards and understanding the thinking behind them is a great opportunity. I was also grateful for the 1:1 networking opportunities. I look forward to continued participation” – David L. Fleischer, ADSR, Israel.

In a unique approach to combine webinar and personal online meeting functions, close to 60 face-to-face video meetings were booked during the conference breaks by the participants to bilaterally discuss business opportunities. A traditional feature of previous business conferences, this opportunity to directly interact with other conference participants was highly appreciated, as expressed by the following statement:

“Attending the seminars was made very easy. Personal interaction at 1:1 meetings was a great idea and enabled good discussions.” – Christian Offermann, Kowa Optimed Deutschland, Germany.

The conference organizers were thrilled about the way this unique online conference concept, necessitated by the global pandemic, was adopted by the industry. “We not only happily donate the income from ticket sales for this event to the WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. In addition, we will also soon enable access to the presentations given in the Vision Knowledge Section on our website” says EMVA General Manager Thomas Lübkemeier and added with respect to classic conference setup: “While we are delighted with the highly positive feedback to this online event, we are also really looking forward to our next physical Business Conference which is scheduled to take place 10 – 12 June 2021 in Sofia, Bulgaria.”

About the European Machine Vision Association

The EMVA is a not for profit organization, open to all, which is owned by its members who represent over 130 companies, institutes, and organizations, originating from within Europe, North America, and Asia. The association seeks to represent the interests of its members and promote the vision industry in general, but also encourage cooperation and standardization. The EMVA hosts several important standards used throughout the machine vision industry including the GenICam series used to provide a consistent, device independent interface to machine vision hardware, the EMVA1288 standard used for bench-marking performance of industrial cameras, and the newly initiated Open Optics Camera Interface (OOCI) standard which addresses the connectivity of camera lenses within a machine vision system, and the new emVISION initiative addressing standardization within embedded vision systems. To find out more visit the web site www.emva.org.

Unique combination of

• online speeches,
• interactive Q&A and
• pre-scheduled virtual face-to-face meetings

More info and registration at www.business-conference-emva.org

Barcelona, 17 June, 2020. The first ever virtual 18^th EMVA Business Conference on 26 June provides a mix of top-notch presentation topics and speakers together with the long missed possibility to directly interact with other conference participants.

“As a reaction to the social distancing measures the EMVA has chosen to not simply cancel the 2020 EMVA Business Conference originally planned to take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, but hold it as virtual edition. In this first ever online format of the conference we offer presentations at the usual high level of the EMVA Business Conference format as well as webinar Q&A features”, explains EMVA General Manager Thomas Lübkemeier and adds: “What makes this virtual conference a truly unique event is the additional opportunity for all participants to book individual bilateral face-to-face video networking meetings during the conference breaks. Not only are these meetings part of the DNA of each physical EMVA Business Conference; but we are especially happy to provide that format online this year since such individual face-to-face meeting opportunities have become so rare in the Covid-19 shutdown.”

Diverse conference program

The conference program dives deep into currently discussed machine vision topics. The presentations are titled “New Approaches to 3D vision”; “Vision-based Autonomous Navigation”; “Artificial Intelligence Learning at the Edge — Application to Integration-Free Quality Control”; “Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Automated Visual Inspection”; and “Photonics & Machine Vision”. This lecture block is complemented by an EMVA outlook 2020/2021 and an EMVA “Vision Standards Executive Summary”.

In addition to that, anther speech refers indirectly to the challenges posted in Covid-19 talking about “B2B Selling in Remote Mode”; and the closing keynote addresses the socio-economic topic “Trust in the Age of Fake Realities – Why the Virtual Economy needs more Common Sense”. More information and registration for this unique conference event at www.business-conference-emva.org.

SAVE THE DATE – 19th EMVA Business Conference 2021

The next physical Business Conference is scheduled to take place 10 – 12 June 2021 in Sofia, Bulgaria. As part of this return to normalcy also the EMVA Young Professional Award will be awarded again in 2021.

About the European Machine Vision Association

The EMVA is a not for profit organization, open to all, which is owned by its members who represent over 130 companies, institutes, and organizations, originating from within Europe, North America, and Asia. The association seeks to represent the interests of its members and promote the vision industry in general, but also encourage cooperation and standardization. The EMVA hosts several important standards used throughout the machine vision industry including the GenICam series used to provide a consistent, device independent interface to machine vision hardware, the EMVA1288 standard used for bench-marking performance of industrial cameras, and the newly initiated Open Optics Camera Interface (OOCI) standard which addresses the connectivity of camera lenses within a machine vision system, and the new emVISION initiative addressing standardization within embedded vision systems. To find out more visit the web site www.emva.org.

• EMVA plans instead one-day conference in online format on June 26th, 2020
• Young Professional Award 2020 is suspended due to course of events

Barcelona, 14 April, 2020. The EMVA announces that based on the high dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic development the EMVA Business Conference 2020 in Sofia is cancelled. The ongoing social and economic shutdown in many countries and lasting uncertainties on the pandemic development don’t provide a safe environment at the moment to hold an international conference.

18th EMVA Business Conference in Online Format

With the undoubtedly necessary cancellation of conferences and trade shows nearly all opportunities for technology exchange and to meet are taken away in these times. Since this year again a sublime list of speakers would have presented technical and economic insights at the EMVA Business Conference the association seeks to make at least part of this expertise available even under the current conditions. As such, the EMVA is working on setting up the 18th Business Conference with a reduced program in a one day online format to take place at Friday, June 26th, 2020. The online conference event will provide technical insights through top-notch presentations and also networking opportunities through pre-scheduled virtual face-to-face meetings during the breaks. Further details can be found soon at www.business-conference-emva.org and www.emva.org.

19th EMVA Business Conference 2021 – SAVE THE DATE

It is the intention of the EMVA organization team to simply delay the physical Business Conference by one year and visit the Bulgarian capital Sofia in 2021. Therefore the EMVA announces the 19^th EMVA Business Conference to take place 10 – 12 June 2021, in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Suspension of EMVA Young Professional Award 2020

The EMVA also announces that due to course of events the EMVA Young Professional Award 2020 is suspended. Subsequently, there will be no call for papers this year for this award. This decision is based on the fact that central benefits connected to winning the award, most notably a free conference ticket, reimbursement of travel costs and a presentation slot at the EMVA Business Conference could not be redeemed this year.

About the European Machine Vision Association

The EMVA is a not for profit organization, open to all, which is owned by its members who represent over 120 companies, institutes, and organizations, originating from within Europe, North America, and Asia. The association seeks to represent the interests of its members and promote the vision industry in general, but also encourage cooperation and standardization. The EMVA hosts several important standards used throughout the machine vision industry including the GenICam series used to provide a consistent, device independent interface to machine vision hardware, the EMVA1288 standard used for bench-marking performance of industrial cameras, and the newly initiated Open Optics Camera Interface (OOCI) standard which addresses the connectivity of camera lenses within a machine vision system, and the new emVISION initiative addressing standardization within embedded vision systems. To find out more visit the web site www.emva.org.