Worldwide one of the leading manufacturers of Smart Cameras

Vision Components GmbH was founded in 1996 by Michael Engel, inventor of the first intelligent camera for industrial applications. Today, it is expert in the field of industrial image processing. The Ettlingen-based company develops and distributes intelligent, network-compatible real time cameras. Due to their proprietary multitasking operating system VCRT, the devices operate without an additional PC, making them easy to integrate into almost any industrial facility. Typical application areas include quality and completeness checks, measurement technology and biometric access control. Short biography: Michael Engel is a physicist who has been working in the field of image processing since 1982. After finishing his degree, he first worked as a research associate at Karlsruhe University's Institute for Process Control and Robotics. He went on to found the company Engel und Stiefvater with Hans Stiefvater in 1984, which quickly became one of Germany's pioneers in industrial image processing before being sold in 1992. At the VISION 1995 trade show, Michael Engel presented a fully functional VC11 prototype – the first intelligent camera for industrial applications, which he had developed from scratch all on his own. Soon after, early in 1996, Vision Components was founded.