Environmental, Social and Ethical Issues

Excerpt

J. H. Lemelson anticipated the subject now known as Machine Vision as early as 1954 [1]. (He filed 76 relevant patents but their lien on major Machine Vision manufacturers was released by a land-mark ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 2005. The judgement was made on legal, not technical, grounds.) However, it was not until the 1970s that serious work began. The 1980s began optimistically but growth slowed later in the decade, triggered by a lack of trust in the technology among US automobile manufacturers. The 1990s witnessed a great acceleration in technical progress and the rate of installation of new systems. Growth continued erratically in the first decade of the new century; world-wide sales of Machine Vision hardware are expected to reach $2,100 million by 2012 [2]. Major market sectors at the time of writing include automobile, aerospace, electronics, glass and plastic containers, printing and food. Non-industrial applications using similar technology include reading automobile number plates, recognition of faces, eyes (iris) and fingerprints. The latter enjoy the widest public awareness, being mentioned occasionally in televison news bulletins and popular drama productions. …