Cognex Technical Firsts

Cognex has more than 200 patents in machine vision, and the largest team of machine vision experts anywhere in the world. Below are a few of the significant technical advances pioneered by Cognex:

• First industrial optical character recognition system (DataMan) – 1982
• First normalized correlation pattern finder (Search) – 1986
• First single-board OEM vision engine (Cognex 2000) – 1986
• First patent for dedicated vision chip (VC-1) – 1991
• First full-capability machine vision system for VME bus computers (Cognex 4000) – 1991
• First advanced vision system for PC/AT bus personal computers (Cognex 5000) – 1993
• First “third-generation” easy-to-use machine vision system (Checkpoint) – 1994
• First PC plug-in Data Matrix 2D code reading solution (acuReader/2D) – 1996
• First high-accuracy, high-speed, high-yield, object location technology (PatMax ®) – 1997
• First compact, high-speed industrial machine vision camera (CVC-1000) – 1998
• First full-capability machine vision sensor (In-Sight 2000) – 2000
• First industrial machine vision sensor with Ethernet / IP (In-Sight 1000 and In-Sight 3000) – 2001

Machine vision applications

The majority of manufacturers served by Cognex today are in the semiconductor, electronics, automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Typical applications include:

• Verifying presence of electronic components
• Ensuring that pharmaceutical packages have been correctly labeled
• Verifying presence of critical fasteners and bolts in automobiles
• Ensuring that safety seals on bottles are present and intact
• Reading ID codes on aircraft engine parts and tracking their manufacturing history
• Guiding assembly robots in automotive factories and electronics manufacturing equipment

Unusual machine vision applications

Cognex vision sensors are used in smaller numbers in virtually every nook and cranny of modern industry. Here are some of the more unusual applications of Cognex technology:

• Checking the sex of chickens—before they are born!
• Grading the quality of potatoes
• Measuring the growth of bacteria in a Petri dish
• Inspecting beer kegs for leaks
• Inspecting coffins
• Sorting books by looking at their covers (Cognex CAN tell a book by its cover!)
• Checking for sediment in bottles of champagne

DVT 535C offers complete set of easy to use color tools

Natick, MA, February 14, 2007—Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ - CGNX), the world’s leading supplier of machine vision sensors, today announced the DVT® 535C, the most capable and easy to use color vision sensor in it’s class. With a full suite of vision tools, the DVT 535C sets a new cost/performance standard for entry-level color vision sensors.

“Unlike most low-cost color vision sensors, the DVT 535C is not limited to a single machine vision function such as color sorting, but can handle a much broader range of applications with a compete set of color tools for sorting, color match and defect detection,” said Kris Nelson, Cognex Senior Vice President, Vision Sensors.

The DVT 535C is the lowest cost model in the DVT color vision sensor family that includes a choice of high-speed and high-resolution products to meet a range of performance requirements. Like all DVT vision sensors, the 535C operates with easy-to-use Intellect™ software that facilitates setup, integration, and maintenance, and is backward compatible with FrameWork.

Cognex is also pleased to announce the latest Intellect software release 1.4 with many enhancements including a new Flexible Flaw Detection (FFD) tool that provides reliable inspection results despite random process variations. FFD reduces inspection errors when the appearance of the part is not consistent due to registration errors, lens and perspective distortions, and normal part-to-part variations.

The DVT 535C vision sensor and Intellect 1.4 are available now.