“I want to say one word to you”

Any film buffs know what that word is? The answer is “plastics” and the quote comes from “The Graduate.”

Let me explain why I begin today with that item of esoterica. I was sitting quietly at the bar in my local “Ruby Tuesday” when the guy next to me had a sudden urge to strike up a conversation. Inevitably, he asked, “So what do you do?” I explained that I was in machine vision, and as you might expect, he asked me to explain.

But this is where it got interesting: rather than turning his attention to the TV while I explained the issues involved in interpreting the content of an image, he became curiously attentive. And when I finally ran out of steam he leaned forward to ask if machine vision might be a good field for his computer-obsessed, mathematically-inclined, teenage son to pursue.

Obviously, I couldn’t give him an answer tailored to the aptitudes of his lad, but the question did set me thinking about the merits, and possible demerits, of the career path we machine vision pros have selected (or perhaps fallen in to,) and I thought that might make for an interesting series of posts.

I don’t have all the subjects mapped out yet, but here’s a list of what to look out for:

• What career paths exist in machine vision?
• Why choose a career in machine vision?
• What skills does the machine vision world need?
• How do you learn about machine vision?
• How do you get machine vision experience?

If there’s a topic I’ve not listed that you’d like to see covered, drop me a note (use the ‘Comment’ function,) and I’ll see what can be done.