The automation of visual inspection is becoming more and more important in modern industry as a consistent, reliable means of judging the quality of raw materials and manufactured goods . The Machine Vision Handbook equips the reader with the practical details required to engineer integrated mechanical-optical-electronic-software systems. Machine vision is first set in the context of basic information on light, natural vision, colour sensing and optics. The physical apparatus required for mechanized image capture – lenses, cameras, scanners and light sources – are discussed followed by detailed treatment of various image-processing methods including an introduction to the QT image processing system. QT is unique to this book, and provides an example of a practical machine vision system along with extensive libraries of useful commands, functions and images which can be implemented by the reader. The main text of the book is completed by studies of a wide variety of applications of machine vision in inspecting and handling different types of object.

The second edition of this accepted reference work has been updated to reflect the rapid developments in the field and now covers both 2D and 3D imaging. Written by expert practitioners from leading companies operating in machine vision, this one-stop handbook guides readers through all aspects of image acquisition and image processing, including optics, electronics and software. The authors approach the subject in terms of industrial applications, elucidating such topics as illumination and camera calibration. Initial chapters concentrate on the latest hardware aspects, ranging from lenses and camera systems to camera-computer interfaces, with the software necessary discussed to an equal depth in later sections. These include digital image basics as well as image analysis and image processing. The book concludes with extended coverage of industrial applications in optics and electronics, backed by case studies and design strategies for the conception of complete machine vision systems. As a result, readers are not only able to understand the latest systems, but also to plan and evaluate this technology. With more than 500 images and tables to illustrate relevant principles and steps.

Across three volumes, the Handbook of Image Processing and Computer Vision presents a comprehensive review of the full range of topics that comprise the field of computer vision, from the acquisition of signals and formation of images, to learning techniques for scene understanding. The authoritative insights presented within cover all aspects of the sensory subsystem required by an intelligent system to perceive the environment and act autonomously. Volume 1 (From Energy to Image) examines the formation, properties, and enhancement of a digital image. Topics and features: • Describes the fundamental processes in the field of artificial vision that enable the formation of digital images from light energy • Covers light propagation, color perception, optical systems, and the analog-to-digital conversion of the signal • Discusses the information recorded in a digital image, and the image processing algorithms that can improve the visual qualities of the image • Reviews boundary extraction algorithms, key linear and geometric transformations, and techniques for image restoration • Presents a selection of different image segmentation algorithms, and of widely-used algorithms for the automatic detection of points of interest • Examines important algorithms for object recognition, texture analysis, 3D reconstruction, motion analysis, and camera calibration • Provides an introduction to four significant types of neural network, namely RBF, SOM, Hopfield, and deep neural networks This all-encompassing survey offers a complete reference for all students, researchers, and practitioners involved in developing intelligent machine vision systems. The work is also an invaluable resource for professionals within the IT/software and electronics industries involved in machine vision, imaging, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Cosimo Distante is a Research Scientist in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in the Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISAI) at the Italian National Research Council (CNR). Dr. Arcangelo Distante is a researcher and the former Director of the Institute of Intelligent Systems for Automation (ISSIA) at the CNR. His research interests are in the fields of Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning, and Neural Computation.

With the demands of quality management and process control in an industrial environment machine vision is becoming an important issue. This handbook of machine vision is written by experts from leading companies in this field. It goes through all aspects of image acquisition and image processing. From the viewpoint of the industrial application the authors also elucidate in topics like illumination or camera calibration. Attention is paid to all hardware aspects, starting from lenses and camera systems to camera-computer interfaces. Besides the detailed hardware descriptions the necessary software is discussed with equal profoundness. This includes sections on digital image basics as well as image analysis and image processing. Finally the user is introduced to general aspects of industrial applications of machine vision, such as case studies and strategies for the conception of complete machine vision systems. With this handbook the reader will be enabled not only to understand up to date systems for machine vision but will also be qualified for the planning and evaluation of such technology.

Abstract Biological vision is a rather fascinating domain of research. Scientists of various origins like biology, medicine, neurophysiology, engineering, math ematics, etc. aim to understand the processes leading to visual perception process and at reproducing such systems. Understanding the environment is most of the time done through visual perception which appears to be one of the most fundamental sensory abilities in humans and therefore a significant amount of research effort has been dedicated towards modelling and repro ducing human visual abilities. Mathematical methods play a central role in this endeavour. Introduction David Marr's theory v^as a pioneering step tov^ards understanding visual percep tion. In his view human vision was based on a complete surface reconstruction of the environment that was then used to address visual subtasks. This approach was proven to be insufficient by neuro-biologists and complementary ideas from statistical pattern recognition and artificial intelligence were introduced to bet ter address the visual perception problem. In this framework visual perception is represented by a set of actions and rules connecting these actions. The emerg ing concept of active vision consists of a selective visual perception paradigm that is basically equivalent to recovering from the environment the minimal piece information required to address a particular task of interest.

With the demands of quality management and process control in an industrial environment machine vision is becoming an important issue. This handbook of machine vision is written by experts from leading companies in this field. It goes through all aspects of image acquisition and image processing. From the viewpoint of the industrial application the authors also elucidate in topics like illumination or camera calibration. Attention is paid to all hardware aspects, starting from lenses and camera systems to camera-computer interfaces. Besides the detailed hardware descriptions the necessary software is discussed with equal profoundness. This includes sections on digital image basics as well as image analysis and image processing. Finally the user is introduced to general aspects of industrial applications of machine vision, such as case studies and strategies for the conception of complete machine vision systems. With this handbook the reader will be enabled not only to understand up to date systems for machine vision but will also be qualified for the planning and evaluation of such technology.