The Automated Imaging Association (AIA) has published a study forecasting that North American sales of machine vision to the pharmaceutical industry will grow by more than nine percent a year through 2006. The study is "The Machine Vision Market: 2001 Results and Forecasts to 2006."
In 2001, about 1900 vision systems, valued at $64 million, were sold to North American pharmaceutical companies. By 2006, the industry expects to sell some 2750 machine vision systems, valued at about $100 million, to the pharmaceutical industry.
Jeffrey A. Burnstein, AIA's executive director, says that machine vision is used to inspect vials, ampules, syringes, solid dosages, blisters, and labels, as well as to check date and lot codes and track products using optical character recognition and 2D-symbol-reading techniques. And a number of new applications are emerging, including UV printing, nasal-spray pattern, logo and code verification on solid dosages, and labeling individual tablets.
In addition to an annual market study, AIA sponsors events such as The Vision Show and Conference, which will be held November 19–21, 2002, in Santa Clara, CA. Conference sessions will highlight successful applications of machine vision. For more information, visit AIA's Web site, Machine Vision Online, at www.machinevisiononline.org [3].
