Next-gen smart camera technology?

Xilinx makes FPGA’s, the kind of programmable board that can process images really fast. Marry that with an image processing package, sprinkle some Halcon tools over the top, and you’ve got yourself a real-time machine vision system.

At least, that’s how I understand, “End-to-End Smarter Vision Demo at SPS IPC Drives Conference Showcases VisualAppl​ets, HALCON, and Zynq”, which is a post on the Xilinx blog from November 25^th, 2013.

Electronics has always been a mystery to me – I prefer manufacturing where I can see what’s going on – but reading the post a couple of times, I gather this could be the basis of the next generation of smart cameras. I can envisage such devices being incorporated all over manufacturing and packaging equipment, making vision an integral part of every operation.