Machine Vision Handbook in 3 Vols

This chapter is concerned with the design of artificial vision systems that attempt to emulate one particular human activity: inspecting and manipulating highly variable natural objects and human artifacts. During the last quarter of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century, Machine Vision, evolved from an exotic technology, created by academics, into one that is of considerable practical and commercial value, and which now provides assistance over a wide area of manufacturing industry. Hitherto, Machine Vision has been applied extensively in industry to tasks such as inspecting close tolerance engineering artefacts, during or shortly, after, manufacture. However, Machine Vision technology can also be applied to those areas of manufacturing where natural materials and other highly variable objects are processed