Machine vision (MV) is a branch of engineering that uses computer vision in the context of manufacturing. While the scope of MV is broad and a comprehensive definition is difficult to distil, a "generally accepted definition of machine vision is '... the analysis of images to extract data for controlling a process or activity.' " Put another way, MV processes are targeted at "recognizing the actual objects in an image and assigning properties to those objects--understanding what they mean."
The main categories into which MV applications fall are quality assurance, sorting, material handling, robot guidance, and calibration.
As recently as 2006, one industry consultant has reported MV to represent a $1.5 billion market in North America. Though, another technology observer asserts that "machine vision is not an industry per se" but rather "the integration of technologies and products that provide services or applications that benefit true industries such as automotive or consumer goods manufacturing, agriculture, and defense."
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