Developer's Aside
Climb a mountain you can climb

When you look at newspapers, you will read about various technologies as if they have reached a practical level. Of course, I don't think that all of them are like that, but when an unrealizable technology is announced in the newspapers as "completed," the engineers in charge of the [...]...

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Developer's Aside
Significance of Automation

Automation" and "robotization" are all the rage. After many years of struggling to automate visual inspection, here is what I have come up with. Automation used to be about doing things that people couldn't do. Or, to do better what a person can do. That is the meaning of [...].

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Developer's Aside
I'll start writing again.

It has been 20 years since we started our company. We are still trying to figure out why automated visual inspection doesn't work. However, compared to the past, we have a clear idea of the direction in which we should be heading. On the other hand, as the labor shortage becomes an issue, those who are working on the automation of visual inspection are [...].

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Developer's Aside
After the 2017 International Robot Exhibition

The 2017 International Robot Exhibition has recently concluded successfully. IoT, AI, deep learning, self-driving technology, cooperative robots, etc. The latest technologies are often featured in the news. This may be the reason why there were so many visitors, both domestic and foreign [...].

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Developer's Aside
after a long time

Here comes the boss. The staff has been working hard and I was left in charge. My apologies. We will be exhibiting at the Image Sensing Expo in June for the first time in five years. And also a seminar. The major change in the past five years has been in the automation of visual inspection [...].

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Developer's Aside
Lighting conditions

IF IT IS A VISUAL INSPECTION, THE BASIC IDEA WOULD BE TO INSPECT WITH SCATTERED LIGHT. WHEN WE ASK UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS PEOPLE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE APPEARANCE OF AN OBJECT, IT IS USUALLY IN THE PRESENCE OF NATURAL LIGHT (SCATTERED LIGHT). OF COURSE, IN A DARK PLACE, THE APPEARANCE DOES NOT BOTHER US. IN OTHER WORDS, NG IS [...].

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Developer's Aside
Use the same lighting conditions as when a person inspects.

The appropriate lighting conditions will vary depending on the application, and the choice of lighting is difficult to make unless you are experienced. As I have mentioned many times in this blog, the basic idea is to use the same lighting conditions as those used for human inspection. The viewer [...].

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Developer's Aside
Wavelengths of Light, Part 2

In the last issue we discussed lighting in general terms. We have been experimenting with various wavelengths of lighting. In terms of visible light, we have tried red, green, blue, white, etc. We have also tried ultraviolet light, and in terms of visible light, we have tried red, green, blue, white, etc. The conclusion we have reached is that white light is basically the way to go. Of course, it's not as easy as it looks [...].

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Developer's Aside
Wavelengths of Light Part 1

This is a general discussion of light wavelengths. Sunlight is white, so it can be divided into long and short wavelengths, and even within white it contains many different kinds of light. You can separate the colors through a prism, but red light, which has a longer wavelength, is not refracted as much and is scattered to a lesser degree [...].

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Developer's Aside
Solder or solder leakage inspection

When soldering or brazing by hand, the shape is often unstable. I had a theme of visual inspection to see if the soldering was actually done properly, so I tested the work sample. As I expected, there was a large variation [...].

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