Machine vision in pharmaceutical inspection

Machine vision is more efficient than a person for certain inspection and guidance tasks. Although people are usually easy to train, they cannot make precision measurements by eye. People are also slow and fatigue easily. But vision systems with cameras, processors, software, and sensors are fast, precise, and tireless. They also work without complaint in less-than-comfortable environments such as clean rooms. To get more familiar with machine vision, Dr. Ben Dawson, Director of Strategic Development at DALSA Corp’s. Industrial Products Division (IPD; Billerica, MA; www.goipd.com) examines a typical setup for inspecting pills in blister packages in this month’s Medical Design Magazine (www.medicaldesign.com/). In the article, he describes how parts or pills must be positioned so the vision system can see them. In some cases, for example, a conveyer may carry the parts. Other cases may need specialized fixtures or staging to hold parts in a precise position.
For the full text go to: http://www.medicaldesign.com/articles/ID/13807