What's Ahead for Machine Vision Cameras?

Throughout the history of the electronics industry, the old refrain that systems will continuously become faster, simpler, and cheaper has remained true. In the early days of computer vision, a frame grabber capable of capturing a single 640 × 480 × 8-bit image consisted of multiple boards in a rack and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Back then, few people — aside from Dick Tracy — could imagine a portable device no bigger than a deck of cards having the ability to capture images and video, store gigabytes of data, and act as a radio, GPS device, and telephone — all costing less than $500.