Imager Scan Engines Hold the Key to Barcode and Machine Vision Technology Convergence

VDC recently published a report analyzing Machine Vision as a growth opportunity for AIDC participants. The following blog highlights some of our thoughts on the market and its potential.

In the enterprise, cameras have historically been associated with machine vision solutions such as Smart Cameras and PC-Based Machine vision systems that leverage industrial cameras & software applications for advanced machine vision applications. However, camera technology has over the years expanded to traditional AIDC markets through the introduction of camera-based imager engines. Imager engines today have overcome previous performance limitations including decode snappiness, ambient light performance, depth of field, and price, all of which has helped the technology do what laser scanners can and more. The demand for solutions that can do more than capturing information from 1D and 2D barcodes for product identification has enabled camera-based imagers to become the go-to choice for data capture applications amongst end users across all verticals as well as future proof their investments.

Exhibit 1: Growing migration towards camera-based barcode scanning solutions

From sophisticated medical instruments to vision-guided robots, use cases are proliferating for embedded scan engines, especially as the functionality expands beyond traditional bar code scanning. Use cases ranging from simple bar code scanning on one end of the spectrum to sophisticated industrial machine vision applications on the other end. VDC sees the “middle ground” of low-end machine vision and image analytics as the value opportunity for existing AIDC-centric solution providers.

VDC believes the machine vision market presents a growth opportunity for AIDC vendors by enhancing vision-related capabilities on their existing camera solutions. As AIDC vendors pursue their R&D efforts, vendors should view 2D imaging as more than just another feature; it opens up an impressive array of new capabilities for image capture and recognition. New and emerging use cases are helping create entirely new experiences and business models and the application potential of imager-based solutions today can ultimately open up the total addressable and serviceable market for barcode scanning solutions.

For more information and insights on this topic including hardware, software and the opportunities it presents, you can download our latest VDC View - Machine Vision Now In Sight for AIDC Participants. You can also contact us at 508-653-9000 to learn more about our 2017 research calendar.