The president of the small to medium-sized machine builder had always made himself a reasonable living from developing custom-based vision systems to inspect one particular type of widget.
And although the market for such widget inspection systems wasn't all that large, his system, or variants of it, had been purchased and widely used by most of the widget makers in the industry.
Recognizing the fact that the Internet might provide his company with more exposure, the President decided to hire a developer to create a web site that would explain to any new potential customers the capabilities of his company.
And that's exactly what he did. Prior to developing the web site, however, a member of the web site development team went to visit the outfit to find out more about the system. Once there, he was treated to an hour long dissertation by the company's marketing manager who explained to him exactly why there was a need to inspect such widgets and a very brief description of the system that they had developed.
After the meeting, the web developer went back to his office and created a stunning web site for the company. Not only did the web site provide a background of the company and its university origins, it also detailed the inspection problems faced by the widget manufacturers. Unfortunately, however, there was only the briefest description of the system itself, the functions it performed and its performance – all listed in bullet points alongside a rather sorry-looking photograph.
When the web site was launched, the President was confident that it would offer the world an insight into the capabilities of his company and lead to a number of new leads, not just from companies involved in widget manufacturing, but other outfits that might be faced with similar inspection problems.
Sadly, of course, that didn't happen. Having won orders with most of the widget makers already, the website attracted no new customers whatsoever. The president and the marketing manger were disappointed – not in the least because they had spent a considerable amount of money developing it. And they were both at a loss to understand why the reaction had been so poor.
Some months later, a journalist from a magazine that covered the field of vision systems design came to call upon the company. Unlike the previous interview, however, the journalist grilled the president to discover exactly how the system had been designed. He went away confident that his description of the hardware chosen for the system and the software that had been written for it by the engineering team would prove a hit with his readers.
And it was. When the article was published, it became immediately apparent to many of the engineering readers how the company could tweak the widget-inspection system to help them inspect their own products too.
The president is now a happy camper. Having received several enquiries from some potential new customers, he is now looking forward to expanding his business into new markets. More importantly, however, he has at last recognized the importance of publicizing the technical capabilities of his technical team rather than just promoting a single product line.
Showing posts with label Image Processing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Image Processing. Show all posts
Friday, May 18, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Taking the temperature of elephants
Many of our readers will be familiar with the principle of operation of thermal imaging (infrared) cameras and how they can be used in a variety of applications ranging from determining the thermal loss of buildings, detecting specific gases, or monitoring production processes.
But like me, most people might be surprised to hear that a group of researchers from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) are now using such cameras to study the thermoregulation of animals such as elephants.
That's right. As a member in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science (APS), Esther Finegan and her students have filmed elephants in Busch Gardens zoological park in Florida with a thermal imaging camera to see how and when they store and radiate heat. She and her students are now pioneering similar thermoregulation studies at the Toronto Zoo.
While the use of thermal imaging will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable tool that will enable zookeepers and landscape architects to better design the animals' surroundings to keep them happy and healthy, this isn't the only means by which researchers have measured the temperature of such beasts.
Last year, for example, scientists at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (FIWI) at the University of Veterinary Medicine (Vienna, Austria) showed that Asian elephants respond to high daytime temperatures by significantly lowering their body temperature during the cooler night hours. By doing so they create a thermal reserve that allows them to store heat and so prevent heat stress as temperatures rise during the day.
To reach that conclusion, they fed small telemeters to a group of captive elephants in Thailand and a group at the Munich Zoo Hellabrunn to monitor temperatures in the animals' gastrointestinal tract. The telemetry system, which permits the continuous recording of temperature, had previously been developed at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology.
Statistical analysis of the data confirmed that while the overall mean body temperature was similar in both the Thai and the German elephants, fluctuations in body temperature were on average twice as large in the Thai animals as in the German ones. The Thai animals had both a higher daily peak temperature and a lower minimum temperature, which the scientists related to the higher mean ambient temperatures in Thailand.
In fact, the body temperature of the Thai elephants dropped at night to well below the normal average, meaning that Thai elephants start the day with a much larger thermal reserve than their German counterparts.
It just goes to show that, just as there's more than one way to skin a cat, there is also more than one way to take the temperature of an elephant. But if I were an elephant, I'd probably prefer the noninvasive image-processing approach rather than ingesting a telemetry system.
But like me, most people might be surprised to hear that a group of researchers from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) are now using such cameras to study the thermoregulation of animals such as elephants.
That's right. As a member in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science (APS), Esther Finegan and her students have filmed elephants in Busch Gardens zoological park in Florida with a thermal imaging camera to see how and when they store and radiate heat. She and her students are now pioneering similar thermoregulation studies at the Toronto Zoo.
While the use of thermal imaging will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable tool that will enable zookeepers and landscape architects to better design the animals' surroundings to keep them happy and healthy, this isn't the only means by which researchers have measured the temperature of such beasts.
Last year, for example, scientists at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (FIWI) at the University of Veterinary Medicine (Vienna, Austria) showed that Asian elephants respond to high daytime temperatures by significantly lowering their body temperature during the cooler night hours. By doing so they create a thermal reserve that allows them to store heat and so prevent heat stress as temperatures rise during the day.
To reach that conclusion, they fed small telemeters to a group of captive elephants in Thailand and a group at the Munich Zoo Hellabrunn to monitor temperatures in the animals' gastrointestinal tract. The telemetry system, which permits the continuous recording of temperature, had previously been developed at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology.
Statistical analysis of the data confirmed that while the overall mean body temperature was similar in both the Thai and the German elephants, fluctuations in body temperature were on average twice as large in the Thai animals as in the German ones. The Thai animals had both a higher daily peak temperature and a lower minimum temperature, which the scientists related to the higher mean ambient temperatures in Thailand.
In fact, the body temperature of the Thai elephants dropped at night to well below the normal average, meaning that Thai elephants start the day with a much larger thermal reserve than their German counterparts.
It just goes to show that, just as there's more than one way to skin a cat, there is also more than one way to take the temperature of an elephant. But if I were an elephant, I'd probably prefer the noninvasive image-processing approach rather than ingesting a telemetry system.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Embedded vision is just a game
In the late 1970s, game maker Atari launched what was to become one of the most popular video games of the era -- Asteroids.
Those of our readers old enough to remember might recall how thrilling it was back then to navigate a spaceship through an asteroid field which was periodically traversed by flying saucers, shooting and destroying both while being careful not to collide with either.
Today, of course, with the advent of new home consoles such as the Sony Playstation, Microsoft Xbox, and Nintendo Wii -- and the availability of a plethora of more graphically pleasing and complex games -- one might be forgiven for thinking that games like Asteroids are ancient history.
Well, apparently not. Because thanks in part to some rather innovative Swedish image-processing technology, it looks as if old games might be about to make a comeback.
That’s right. This month, eye tracking and control systems developer Tobii Technology (Danderyd, Sweden) took the wraps off “EyeAsteroids,” a game it claimed was the world’s first arcade game totally run by eye control.
In the company’s EyeAsteroid game, players have the chance to save the world (yet again) from an impending asteroid collision. As a slew of asteroids move closer to Earth, the gamer looks at them in order to fire a laser that destroys the rocks and saves the world from destruction.
Henrik Eskilsson, the chief executive officer of Tobii Technology, believes the addition of eye control to computer games is the most significant development in the gaming industry since the introduction of motion control systems such as the Nintendo Wii. And if he’s right, that’s a big market opportunity for all sorts of folks that are associated with the vision systems business.
But perhaps more importantly, the game might make interested parties take a look at another of the company’s product offerings: an image recognition system that can find and track the eyes of drivers in order to inform an automotive safety system of the driver’s state, regardless of changes in environmental conditions.
Because while saving Earth from asteroids using the eyes might be good fun and games, saving lives on the highway through tracking the eyes of motorists is a much more distinguished achievement, and one that -- in the long run -- might also prove to be a more lucrative business opportunity.
Nevertheless, those folks more captivated by the former application of the technology will be only too pleased to know that the EyeAsteroids game is available for purchase by companies and individuals. Tobii Technology plans a limited production run of 50 units that will be available for $15,000 each.
Those of our readers old enough to remember might recall how thrilling it was back then to navigate a spaceship through an asteroid field which was periodically traversed by flying saucers, shooting and destroying both while being careful not to collide with either.
Today, of course, with the advent of new home consoles such as the Sony Playstation, Microsoft Xbox, and Nintendo Wii -- and the availability of a plethora of more graphically pleasing and complex games -- one might be forgiven for thinking that games like Asteroids are ancient history.
Well, apparently not. Because thanks in part to some rather innovative Swedish image-processing technology, it looks as if old games might be about to make a comeback.
That’s right. This month, eye tracking and control systems developer Tobii Technology (Danderyd, Sweden) took the wraps off “EyeAsteroids,” a game it claimed was the world’s first arcade game totally run by eye control.
In the company’s EyeAsteroid game, players have the chance to save the world (yet again) from an impending asteroid collision. As a slew of asteroids move closer to Earth, the gamer looks at them in order to fire a laser that destroys the rocks and saves the world from destruction.
Henrik Eskilsson, the chief executive officer of Tobii Technology, believes the addition of eye control to computer games is the most significant development in the gaming industry since the introduction of motion control systems such as the Nintendo Wii. And if he’s right, that’s a big market opportunity for all sorts of folks that are associated with the vision systems business.
But perhaps more importantly, the game might make interested parties take a look at another of the company’s product offerings: an image recognition system that can find and track the eyes of drivers in order to inform an automotive safety system of the driver’s state, regardless of changes in environmental conditions.
Because while saving Earth from asteroids using the eyes might be good fun and games, saving lives on the highway through tracking the eyes of motorists is a much more distinguished achievement, and one that -- in the long run -- might also prove to be a more lucrative business opportunity.
Nevertheless, those folks more captivated by the former application of the technology will be only too pleased to know that the EyeAsteroids game is available for purchase by companies and individuals. Tobii Technology plans a limited production run of 50 units that will be available for $15,000 each.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Win $50,000 courtesy of the US Government!
Today's troops often confiscate remnants of destroyed documents from war zones, but reconstructing entire documents from them is a daunting task.
To discover if they can unearth a more effective means to do just that, the folks at DARPA have come up with a challenge that they hope will encourage individuals to develop a more automated solution.
That's right. The defense organization is hoping that by offering a whopping $50,000 in prize money, entrants to its so-called "Shredder Challenge" will generate some ideas that it might be able to make use of.
The Challenge itself consists of solving five individual puzzles embedded in the content of documents that have all been shredded by different means. To participate in the challenge, participants must download the images of the shredded documents from the challenge web site, reconstruct the documents, solve the puzzles, and submit the correct answers before Dec. 4, 2011.
Points will be awarded to those who provide the correct answers to the mandatory questions associated with each puzzle. $1,000 will be awarded for each point scored up to $50,000 for a perfect score. DARPA will then award one cash prize of up to $50,000 to the participant who scored the highest total number of points by the deadline.
Registration is open to all eligible parties at www.shredderchallenge.com, which provides detailed rules and images of the shredded documents for the five problems.
Clearly, this is an application that would benefit from the expert knowledge of those in the image processing field who might be able to develop -- or deploy -- a set of vision-based algorithms to reconstruct the documents and hence solve the puzzles.
Interestingly enough, of course, several individuals contributing to the discussion forums on the Shredder Challenge web site are taking exactly that approach...
To discover if they can unearth a more effective means to do just that, the folks at DARPA have come up with a challenge that they hope will encourage individuals to develop a more automated solution.
That's right. The defense organization is hoping that by offering a whopping $50,000 in prize money, entrants to its so-called "Shredder Challenge" will generate some ideas that it might be able to make use of.
The Challenge itself consists of solving five individual puzzles embedded in the content of documents that have all been shredded by different means. To participate in the challenge, participants must download the images of the shredded documents from the challenge web site, reconstruct the documents, solve the puzzles, and submit the correct answers before Dec. 4, 2011.
Points will be awarded to those who provide the correct answers to the mandatory questions associated with each puzzle. $1,000 will be awarded for each point scored up to $50,000 for a perfect score. DARPA will then award one cash prize of up to $50,000 to the participant who scored the highest total number of points by the deadline.
Registration is open to all eligible parties at www.shredderchallenge.com, which provides detailed rules and images of the shredded documents for the five problems.
Clearly, this is an application that would benefit from the expert knowledge of those in the image processing field who might be able to develop -- or deploy -- a set of vision-based algorithms to reconstruct the documents and hence solve the puzzles.
Interestingly enough, of course, several individuals contributing to the discussion forums on the Shredder Challenge web site are taking exactly that approach...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Adventures in Imaging
If you'd like to know what's going on with the VC crowd and new ideas in imaging, you could attend the MIT Imaging Ventures class on March 30, 2010.
If you missed it, here is the panel of entrepreneurs and technologists--a list that is very interesting to check out:
• Kenny Kubala, FiveFocal ~ Advanced imaging and optics;
• Rob Rowe, Lumidigm ~ Biometric fingerprint systems;
• Mark Holzbach, Zebra Imaging ~ Holographic products;
• Kari Pulli, Nokia Research Imaging ~ Imaging on mobiles
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If you missed it, here is the panel of entrepreneurs and technologists--a list that is very interesting to check out:
• Kenny Kubala, FiveFocal ~ Advanced imaging and optics;
• Rob Rowe, Lumidigm ~ Biometric fingerprint systems;
• Mark Holzbach, Zebra Imaging ~ Holographic products;
• Kari Pulli, Nokia Research Imaging ~ Imaging on mobiles
Follow Vision Systems Design on:
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