Recently introduced USB3 Vision joins several other established standards, all of which increase component selection, simplify setup and expand the market for vision systems.
Component interoperability for PC-based vision systems has come a long way in a short time. The main reason for this quick evolution is interface standards, which the AIA, a machine vision trade group, began introducing in 2000.
In the 1980s and 1990s, digital cameras began to replace analog cameras in machine vision systems. Unfortunately, these cameras often had proprietary interfaces that required custom cables to connect to a PC. This forced end-users to either rely on a single supplier when developing a vision system, or spend lots of time and money tweaking the connections between camera, frame grabber and other components so they worked well together.