http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~lowe/vision.html

 


The Computer Vision Industry

David Lowe

This web page lists companies that develop computer vision products. Computer vision (also often referred to as "machine vision" for industrial vision applications) is the automated extraction of information from images. This differs from image processing, in which an image is processed to produce another image. This page covers only products based on computer vision, and it does not cover image processing or any of the many suppliers of sensors or other equipment to the industry.

Companies are categorized under their principal application area, and then listed alphabetically. Companies are listed only if they have web pages giving information about their products. Please let me know of any links that are missing.


Automotive driver assistance and traffic management

Image Sensing Systems (St. Paul, Minnesota). Real-time traffic management using roadside cameras. License plate recognition systems.

Iteris (Santa Ana, California). Real-time traffic management and signaling using video detection.

MobilEye (Jerusalem, Israel). Vision systems that warn automobile drivers of danger, provide adaptive cruise control, and give driver assistance such as active braking. Systems are currently available in certain cars from BMW, Volvo, GM, and others.

TrafficVision (Pendleton, South Carolina). Real-time traffic management using computer vision.


Eye and Head Tracking

Gazepoint (Vancouver, Canada). Low-cost eye-trackers for consumer and research applications.

Mirametrix (Montreal, Canada). Free-head eye-tracker.

Smart Eye (Göteborg, Sweden). Systems to track eye and gaze position. Applications include detection of drowsiness or inattention in drivers.

SMI (Berlin, Germany). Eye and gaze tracking systems.


Film and Video: Sports analysis

Prozone (Leeds, UK). Systems for tracking sports players and the ball in real time for match analysis.

Hawkeye (Winchester, UK). Uses multiple high-speed cameras to provide precise tracking of the ball in tennis, cricket, and other sports for refereeing and analysis.

PlayfulVision (Lausanne, Switzerland). Provides real time, automatic video analytics and statistics for team-sports.

QuesTec (Deer Park, New York). Systems for tracking sports action to provide enhanced broadcasts.

Sportvision (New York, NY). Vision systems to provide real-time graphics augmentaion for sports broadcasts.

Vizrt (Bergen, Norway). Creates 3D graphics for television broadcasts. Includes Viz Libero computer vision product for 3D visualization of sporting events.


Film and Video

2d3 (Oxford, UK). Systems for tracking objects in video or film and solving for 3D motion to allow for precise augmentation with 3D computer graphics.

Image Metrics (Manchester, England). A markerless tracking system for the human face that can be used to map detailed motion and facial expressions to synthetic characters.

Imagineer Systems (Guildford, UK). Computer vision software for the film and video industries.

MirriAd (London, UK). Uses computer vision methods to track consistent regions in video and insert virtual advertising.


    Gesture Recognition

    GestureTek (Toronto, Canada). Tracks human gestures for playing grames or interacting with computers.

    Microsoft Kinect (Redmond, Washington). Provides full-body motion sensing and gesture recogntion for the Xbox gaming system and other applications.

    PointGrab (Tel Aviv, Israel). Gesture recognition for control of computers and other devices.


    General purpose vision systems

    Cognex (Natick, Massachusetts) is one of the largest machine vision companies. Develops systems for inspection, assembly, localization tasks, and many other areas.

    InfoDif (Ankara, Turkey). Vision systems for broad range of industries and applications.

    MathWorks (Natick, Massachusetts). Matlab modules and components for computer vision applications.

    Matrox Imaging (Dorval, Canada). Software and hardware for machine vision applications.

    National Instruments (Austin, Texas). Vision software and systems used for many applications, including inspection, biomedical, and security.

    Neptec (Ottawa, Canada). Laser-based 3D vision systems for use on the space shuttles and other applications.

    Newton Research Labs (Renton, Washington). Vision systems for precision inspection, non-contact measurement, and robotics.

    Point Grey Research (Vancouver, Canada). Real-time stereo vision systems, spherical vision systems, and imaging hardware.

    RSIP Vision (Jerusalem, Israel). Customized vision systems for medical, industrial, and other applications.

    Seeing Machines (Canberra, Australia). Systems for tracking faces and eye gaze direction for human-computer interaction.

      Soliton (Bangalore, India). Smart cameras for industrial inspection and other applications.

      SpikeNet (Toulouse, France). Trainable vision systems for performing recognition.

      ViSSee (Lugano, Switzerland). Developing a low-cost real-time sensor for measuring speed using an approach modeled on vision in the fruit fly.

      VISIONx (Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada). Vision systems for high accuracy measurement and other applications.

      Vitronic (Wiesbaden, Germany). Vision systems for inspection, manufacturing, logistics, traffic management, and other applications.


      Industrial automation and inspection: Electronics industry

      KLA-Tencor (San Jose, California). Systems for inspection and process control in semiconductor manufacturing.

      Orbotech (Yavne, Israel). Automated inspection systems for printed circuit boards and flat panel displays.


      Industrial automation and inspection: Food and agriculture

      Montrose Technologies (Ottawa, Canada). Vision systems for the baked goods industry. Systems monitor bake color, shape, and size of bread, cookies, tortillas, etc.

      Ellips (Eindhoven, The Netherlands). Vision systems for inspecting and grading fruits and vegetables.


      Industrial automation and inspection: Printing and textiles

      Advanced Vision Technology (Hod Hasharon, Israel). Systems to inspect output from high-speed printing presses.

      Elbit Vision Systems Ltd. (Yoqneam, Israel). Vision systems for textile inspection and other applications.

      Mnemonics (Mt. Laurel, New Jersey). Vision systems for print quality inspection and other applications.

      Xiris Automation (Burlington, Ontario, Canada). Inspection for the printing and packaging industries.


        Industrial automation and inspection: Other

        Adaptive Vision (Gliwice, Poland). Data-flow based software for machine vision engineers.

        Adept (Pleasanton, California). Industrial robots with vision for part placement and inspection.

        Avalon Vision Solutions (Lithia Springs, Georgia). Vision systems for the plastics industry.

        Basler (Ahrensburg, Germany). Inspection systems for optical media, sealants, displays, and other industries.

        Hermary Opto Electronics (Coquitlam, BC, Canada). Develops 3D scanners for sawmills and other applications.

        JLI vision (Soborg, Denmark). Vision systems for industrial inspection tasks, including food processing, glassware, medical devices, and the steel industry.

        LMI Technologies (Vancouver, Canada). Develops 3D vision systems using laser sensors for inspection of wood products, roads, automotive manufacturing, and other areas.

        Lucidyne (Corvallis, Oregon). Vision systems for inspecting and grading lumber.

        MVTec (Munich, Germany). Vision systems for inspection and other applications.

        NeuroCheck GmbH (Remseck, Germany). Inspection systems for quality control.

        Perceptron (Plymouth, Michigan). Creates 3D laser scanning systems for automotive and other applications.

        PPT Vision (Eden Prairie, Minnesota). Vision systems for automotive, pharmaceutical, electronics, and other industries.

        Seegrid (Pittsburgh, PA). Industrial mobile robots that use vision for mapping and navigation.

        SIGHTech (San Jose, California). Trainable computer vision systems for inspection and automation.

        Virtek Vision International (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada). Laser-based inspection and templating systems.

        Wintriss Engineering (San Diego, California). Vision systems for suface inspection and sports vision applications.


        Medical and biomedical

        Claron Technology (Toronto, Canada). Uses real-time stereo vision to detect and track the pose of markers for surgical applications.

        Edao (Paris, France). System for monitoring patients in nursing care.

        LookTel (Los Angeles, California). Software for mobile devices to assist the visually impaired. Current products include visual recognition of paper currency, and object recognition.

        Mirada Medical (Oxford, UK). Software for medical image analysis and diagnosis based on computer vision research.

        Orcam (Jerusalem, Israel). Text reading, face recognition, and other assistance for visually impaired users. Uses glasses with a camera to view the scene.


        Object Recogntion and AR for Mobile Devices

        A9 (Palo Alto, California). Image recognition and product search for camera phones. Owned by Amazon.

        Augment (Paris, France). Platform to provide real-time augmented reality for mobile devices.

        Imagemetry (Prague, Czech Republic). Develops computer vision applications for mobile devices.

        Layar (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Augmented reality platform for smartphones.

        Metaio (Munich, Germany). Augmented reality SDK for mobile devices, as well as other augmented reality hardware and software solutions.

        Mobile Acuity (Edinburgh, UK). Visual product recognition and search for mobile devices.

        SuperFish (Palo Alto, California). Computer vision for mobile devices, including Visual product recognition.

        Wikitude (Salzburg, Austria). Platform and apps for augmented reality on mobile devices.


        People tracking

        Brickstream (Atlanta, GA). Tracking people within stores for sales, marketing, and security.

        Reveal (Auckland, New Zealand). Systems for counting and tracking pedestrians using overhead cameras.

        Sightcorp (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Systems for face and crowd analysis.

        VideoMining (State College, PA). Tracking people in stores to improve marketing and service.


        Photography

        Algolux (Montreal, Canada). Computational photography to improve image quality on mobile devices.

        Cloudburst Research (Vancouver, Canada). Develops AutoStitch Panorama, which provides fully automatic image stitching for the iOS platform.

        Kolor (Challes les eaux, France). Develops the Autopano Pro software for automated panorama stitching of digital images. Also provides high-dynamic-range imaging by combining multiple exposures.


        Safety monitoring

        Poseidon (Boulogne, France). The Poseidon System monitors swimming pools to warn of accidents and drowning victims.


        Security and Biometrics

        Aimetis (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada). Systems for intelligent video surveillance.

        Aurora (Northampton, UK). Systems for biometric face recognition.

        Briefcam (Jerusalem, Israel). Develops software for summarization of long surveillance video in a short summary video.

        Cognimatics (Lund, Sweden). Detection and counting of people and vehicles in video streams.

        Digital Persona (Redwood City, California). Fingerprint recognition systems.

        EVITECH (Paris, France). Smart video surveillance systems.

        Equinox (New York, NY). Security systems using novel sensors, such as registered visible and thermal infrared images and use of polarized lighting.

        Genetec (Montreal, Canada). Security systems for license plate recognition, surveillance, and access control.

        IntelliVision (San Jose, California). Automated monitoring systems, including face and object recognition.

        ObjectVideo (Reston, Virginia). Automated video surveillance products for tracking, classification, and activity recognition.

        Sighthound (Menlo Park, California). Detection and monitoring of people in video streams.


        Three-dimensional modeling

        Eos Systems (Vancouver, Canada). PhotoModeler software allows creation of texture-mapped 3-D models from a small number of photographs. Also provides accurate photogrammetric 3D measurements from multiple images of a scene.

        Creaform (Quebec City, Canada). Develops 3D scanners for the human body and other applications.


        Web and Cloud Applications

        Incogna (Ottawa, Canada). Develops a system for image search on the web. Uses GPUs for increased performance.

        LTU Technologies (Paris, France). Image retrieval based on content.

        Megvii (Beijing, China). Deep learning for face recognition in the cloud.

        Taaz (San Diego, California). Virtual makeover website uses computer vision methods to allow users to try on makeup, hair styles, sunglasses, and jewelery.



        Some other sources of information:
        Machine Vision Online
        UK Industrial Vision Association