Is machine vision an attractive business or not?

Some time ago, several machine vision-related companies were discussed in the newspapers.

It is true that the need for machine vision is very high, and many companies are considering entering the market in that while the market is forming, there are no absolute winners.

But it is not such a sweet business. The truth is that those who put themselves in it should not do it.

First, much of it is just a replacement for what people can do, and you can't expect to invest more than the "labor cost." There is not much of a market for anything much over 2 million yen. This is not a world where you can sell something at a high price because you made it good or because you spent a lot of money on development.

It is also not easy to reach a detection capability sufficient to reduce labor costs. Most of them are still at the "poka-prevention" level.

The biggest drawback is that the evaluation is not clear. While there is no problem with presence/absence inspections or barcode readers because the results are clear in black and white, when it comes to visual inspections, the results are quite subjective. Users do not really know what is really going on until they try it out.

There was one more thing. When we receive a development fee and make each product one of a kind, it becomes "something that cannot be sold anywhere else. This is especially true if the product is well-made. What happens when you repeat this process.... It is difficult to sustain growth.

I also have a dilemma in this area. There is an option of going for expansion at once by raising capital widely, but it is hard when profit is demanded. I think we have no choice but to take it slowly.