Machine Vision includes technology and methods used to extract information from an image on an automated basis, as opposed to image processing, where the output is another image. Machine Vision System also includes a large number of technologies, software and hardware products, integrated systems, actions, methods, expertise.
The extracted information
1. Can be a simple good-part/bad-part signal or more a complex set of data such as the identity, position and orientation of each object in an image.
2. Can be used for such applications as automatic inspection and robot/process guidance in industry, for security monitoring and vehicle guidance.
The term “Machine Vision” is practically used for industrial automation applications; less universal for other environments. (e.g. security & vehicle guidance)
The primary uses for machine vision are automatic inspection and industrial robot/process guidance.