With standards working group meetings, Future Standards Forum and Plugfest the spring International Vision Standards Meeting laid once again the foundation for interoperability of cameras, systems and software.
Vienna/Barcelona, April 28th, 2023. More than 100 developers from Europe, North America and Asia representing about forty machine vision companies met during the spring edition of the International Vision Standards Meeting (IVSM) from 17-20 April in Vienna which was hosted by the EMVA and the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) where the event was held. The International Vision Standards Meeting combines the global machine vision standardization efforts and goes back two decades to the kick-off meeting for the GigE Vision standard in June 2003. Since then, the supporting associations A3 (North America), CMVU (China), EMVA (Europe), JIIA (Japan), and VDMA (Germany) alternate as hosts for the biannual meetings.
Standardization as the basis for success for machine vision breakthrough
EMVA Standards Manager Werner Feith points out the meaning of the biannual standards meetings to the entire industry. ‘Alone in Europe and North America vision-tech in 2022 has generated some 3.8 billion Euros and 3.1 billion US$, respectively. Standardization, which becomes clearly visible at the IVSM meeting, lays the foundation of all this as it generates compatibility amongst products which are being sold into multiple industries. Such customer as engineering value generated for the entire industry during the semi-annual IVSM as the vision-tech heart chamber cannot be overestimated.’
The event was a complete success for both EMVA and AIT. Markus Clabian, Head of the High-Performance Vision Systems research group at the Center for Vision, Automation & Control (VAC), comments: ‘For us, it was a strategic decision to host the IVSM. Our aim is to significantly increase the visibility of AIT and our technologies in the professional community, demonstrating the deep expertise in the field of machine vision at the AIT Center for Vision, Automation & Control. In addition, as a research and development organization, the exchange with experts is crucial to us, not only on a professional level but also to understand the needs of the market. At the IVSM we talked to the experts and companies from China, Japan, Canada, USA, Belgium, Germany, and many more, and discussed opportunities for collaboration. Thirdly, during the tours through various AIT Labs, we were able to show different innovative application fields of machine vision, where vision standards clearly demonstrate its value.’
Christoph Zierl, Vice-Chair of the GenICam Standard and Director Organization Development of MVTec Software GmbH, is equally satisfied with the outcomes of the International Vision Standards Meeting in Vienna: ‘The plugfest on April 18th has shown again that cross-vendor practical testing of interoperability between cameras and software applications is indispensable. The GenICam Working Group, newly formed on a sound legal basis, now again comprises about 45 companies with a total of more than 150 involved members, including some new members. GenICam is the basis for plug&play operation of cameras and devices in industrial image processing. All hardware interface standards represented at the IVSM build on this standard. Closer cooperation was agreed between the GenICam and EMVA1288 standards in a joint working meeting of both standards committees here in Vienna.’ For Christoph Zierl, all this shows the immense importance of the biannual meetings for the further development of the entire industry.
Plugfest: live tests for software and components compatibility and interoperability
The ‘Plugfest’ is a special highlight at each meeting, where experts apply the standards and connect a wide range of products, some of which are new. Reynold Dodson is President of the company BitFlow and Chair of the CameraLink standard, as well as a member of the CoaXPress working group. He describes the plugfest function as an important part of the meeting: ‘In the machine vision industry, a plugfest is chance for all the firms that work on the standard to test the interoperability of their products. These plugfests serve a number of purposes, they improve specifications, they provide a venue for mandatory interoperability testing and they tighten and enhance the social aspects of standards creation. The ultimate goal of plugfests, like the standards they exercise, is to improve the customer experience. For CoaXPress, this was the first year that products were required to pass a validation framework, which presented some new challenges, but which will ultimately strengthen market confidence in the standard.” During the meeting in Vienna, the plugfest for the first time was opened to the professional community outside the companies and institutions involved in the standards working groups.
EMVA Standards Manager Werner Feith also thanks the organization partner AIT where the event was held: ‘It was a great pleasure for the standards community to be guest in Vienna and we are grateful about the support given by the Austrian Institute of Technology.’
A summary of the decisions made in the working groups for the various machine vision standards will be published on a separate occasion.
The press release of our cooperation partner AIT about this event can be found at https://www.ait.ac.at/media/presseaussendungen.