EditorialThe Machine Vision (MV) business continues to grow, even though the trade outlook in its major application areas has had an impact. In 1998, according to a study released in April 1999 by the Automated Imaging Association (AIA), the world-wide machine vision market hit EUR 4.6 billion, led by a 15% jump to EUR 1.1 billion in Europe. The North American machine vision market grew 2.6% to EUR1.6 billion, while unit sales rose 22.7%. The Japanese market fell about 5% to EUR 1.3 billion, heavily affected by the slump in the semiconductor market, which was also the key factor in the slowdown in growth of the North American market. In the last few years, the number of units delivered annually have tripled but the revenues have only doubled.Last year, business was picking up again and at the beginning of the year 2000, many companies are reporting substantial new orders. The industry believes there will be continuous growth in coming years. Customers are requesting more features and more speed but expect lower prices. This puts a lot of pressure on product development and more efficient operations in systems deliveries are needed. Customers in every manufacturing industry demand cheaper products, more flexibility and just in time deliveries meeting higher quality standards. At the same time, their products are getting smaller - these factors favour the use of technology such as machine vision. MV vendors are required to build and deliver stand-alone inspection systems or to integrate them with sorting mechanics. Automatic visual inspection produces an environment for Statistical Process Control (SPC) and customers are learning how best to benefit from this source of information. Now that MV systems are widely accepted and their capabilities recognised, they are getting more and more of the responsibility for real-time control in different production applications. Manufacturers of modern machinery and production lines in many different industries have integrated MV technology with their products for internal inspection and quality control. Embedded vision systems are gaining their market share over stand-alone systems. The European Commission funded High Performance Computing and Networking (HPCN); its Technology Transfer Node (TTN) network has successfully implemented almost 200 projects during the three-year period of the programme. Over 20 of them are machine vision applications. Finnish companies have been partners in seven of these projects and won valuable contacts and new business opportunities with European customers thanks to effective dissemination campaigns included in the programme and conducted within the TTN network. In January 2000, awareness of the project was extended to other Mediterranean countries. The workshop in Cairo between HPCN TTN nodes and Mediterranean countries opened up planning for new extended co-operation. A new EU programme called EUMEDIS is due to start this spring and many potential applications have already been identified. Antti Soini  Vision Club of FinlandVCF was established in 1995. It is a section of the Finnish Society of Automation (FSA).The aim of VCF is to:
MembersThe membership of the Club consists of ordinary individual members and patrons. The members represent MV providers, users, researchers and students. Any corporate body may register with the council as a patron of the Club. The members represent various fields of MV and automation, including trade, research, manufacturing, education, design and use.At the beginning of 2000 we had 196 members representing about 80 companies and 20 universities and research centres. International ConnectionsVCF is active in building up contacts with MV clubs in other countries. We have attended the Hanover Fair with our member companies for the past four years. Close co-operation with European Union funded technology transfer programme (HPCN-TTN) has helped members in developing their own business.Machine Vision News VCF has been active in collecting information and publishing this annual newspaper for the past five years. The paper is distributed in addition to direct mailing lists at many international and national exhibitions and events. Previous samples of the MVN papers are available in VCF office (atufin@ibm.net). From 1999 on a web version could be seen at: (http://www.automationsoc.fi/jaostot/mvn)r programme (HPCN-TTN) has helped members in developing their own business. Vision Boulevard Vision Boulevard is a product that has been successfully used in the last two Automation Days and will now be used in other exhibitions like Tekniikka 2000 as well. Vision Boulevard reserves and decorates an isle in the exhibition and collects machine vision vendors and research organisation there with their own stands. This type of effort increases the visibility of individual exhibitors, but leaves them independent. At the same time it increases the awareness of this technology and gets all visitors to think about this technology and its potential applications in their own industries.
Forthcoming event in Finland:
 The FSA, founded in 1953, is a professional association for specialists within the field of automation technology. FSA operations cover all branches of industry. At the beginning of 2000 we had 1,779 ordinary members, eight honorary members and 45 patrons in the Society. Finnish Automation Support LtdThe company provides the Society with necessary office services. It also makes practical arrangements for scientific events, excursions, society meetings, exhibitions, etc. and co-ordinates technology programmes and TTN activities related to machine vision.Automation Days Automation Days, organised
by the Society since 1966, is the major biennial event in the field of
industrial automation. In September 1999, the exhibition attracted over
23,000 visitors. The exhibition area of over 6800 m2 included 400 stands.
VCF built a Vision Boulevard where the latest MV achievements were introduced.
A total of 630 participants attended the conference accompanying the exhibition.
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