The European Commission is opening a call to contribute to the fight against Covid19.

In this webinar John Magan, Deputy Head of the Photonics Unit at the European Commission, outlines the content of the call and will answer your questions on this. The webinar will take place on May 15th, 12pm. Register here: https://www.photonics21.org/events-workshops/2020/05/2020_05_Webinar_EC_Covid_call.php

Photonics21 aims to establish Europe as a leader in the development and deployment of photonics technologies within the various applications fields such as ICT, lighting, industrial manufacturing, life science, safety as well as in education and training. EMVA is pleased that Dr.-Ing. Dirk Berndt has been elected to the Board of Stakeholders (BoS) of Photonics21 in his function as member of the EMVA board of directors. The Board of Stakeholders is the main decision-making body of the European Technology Platform (ETP) Photonics21.

EMVA President Chris Yates discussed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the machine vision industry in a live panel webinar on April 15 hosted by IMVEurope together with Jeff Burstein, Allan Anderson, and Anne Wendel, from the AIA, UKIVA, and VDMA associations.

In his opening statement Chris strongly acknowledged the contribution and efforts made by front line staff to the people directly and indirectly affected by this pandemic.

With regards to industrial production he highlighted the ability for manufacturing supply chains to more rapidly reorganize to provide necessary goods to address the crisis; thanks to the flexibility in automation as one of the promises of Industry 4.0. Looking at the vision industry the panelists stressed the positive role of vision technology in fighting the pandemic, be it in automated lab systems for example in vaccine processing and testing; in thermal imaging to control the body temperature in highly frequented places; or in the multiple camera based inspection systems of pharmaceuticals and medical goods.

Chris noted: “Several initiatives have been started with the goal to leverage recent developments in AI/deep learning to rapidly make a classification of CT scans of patient chest and lung areas; amongst them the European Imaging COVID-19 AI Initiative.”

Quite a few EMVA members reported that demand remains strong and projects are continuing for the time being. Nevertheless, Chris said out that the Corona epidemic will without doubt have negative business impacts on the wider economy. While clear picture of the impact is not yet to be seen, Chris Yates pointed towards two major areas to have in focus during the crisis. One is liquidity:

“Certainly impacts will be different across companies since the vision industry serves many different customer sectors, hence a reasonable entrepreneurial decision would be to set a focus on conserving cash as a rational response to uncertainty.”

The second area Chris highlighted is to have a close look at the supply chain.

“Machine vision has the advantage to normally order in relatively low to medium volumes. However, bearing in mind that one large unknown still is the lockdown period one has to keep good contact to the suppliers and, if the liquidity allows maybe raise stock to buffer future shortages.”

Chris also joined in with the other panelists in highlighting the importance to retain the workforce as long as possible in order to be able to serve rising demand quickly after the crisis.

Chris outlined the overall goals for the EMVA as an association during this period to support the EMVA members and the wider vision community in whichever way possible during the crisis; and that the vision industry is well placed to emerge strongly and able to quickly support the needs of wider markets. Immediate reactions of the EMVA include the transformation of the EMVA Business Conference to be held online in virtual form on 26 June; but also online training seminars and exams to acquire the EMVA1288 standard certification. In addition, the EMVA will release a series of videos of previous conferences and events so that can catch up on recent events and insights in quiet spells – particularly the second embedded vision Europe conference held last November.

“Most importantly, we will highly intensify our direct contact to the members in order to directly understand their needs and start with market research activities in order to grasp the dimension of the Corona crisis for the vision community”, said Chris Yates.

In his closing remark the EMVA President said:

“Overall I see that on the macro scale the proposition of automation in general and vision sensing for automation is undiminished. Whilst the effects of the crisis will certainly affect us all, our businesses, and attitudes, the fundamental drivers of the industry remain, and in many cases are strengthened.”

Wednesday 15 April 2020 @ 3pm (UK), 4pm (Europe), 10am (ET)

Imaging and Machine Vision Europe will host a live panel discussion featuring leading figures from industry bodies around the world to discuss vision’s response to the Covid 19 crisis.

Chris Yates, President EMVA, will be one of the invited speakers. Live panel webinar registration:

https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1300110&tp_key=3ca077a71d&sti=imvenewsletter

We all are well aware that the global coronavirus pandemic is affecting our private and business life in such a significant way most of us never experienced before. Our thoughts remain with those who are ill and those working at the forefront of efforts to contain the pandemic.

Earlier in the year preparations for a successful 18th edition of EMVA’s annual Business Conference, 25 – 27 June 2020 in Sofia, Bulgaria, were well advanced, the conference program almost completed and with more than 60 registrants already end of February, we were again looking forward to a successful and enjoyable event.

Obviously the EMVA event team has been in contact with local authorities and monitored closely the international situation for the last weeks. Now, based on the high dynamics of the pandemic development it will come as no surprise that we must formally cancel the EMVA Business Conference 2020 in Sofia.

Already registered attendees as well as conference sponsors will be contacted directly with regards to refunding their payments. It is our intention to simply delay the Business Conference by one year and visit Sofia in 2021.

18th EMVA Business Conference in Online Format

The EMVA Conference, besides relevant technical and market driven presentations, is characterized by meeting the peers in a pleasant setup. Personal conversations, exchanging ideas, laughing and enjoying the valuable time together is what makes this event a true annual highlight.

Therefore, whoever joined an EMVA Business Conference in one of Europe’s main capitals the last 17 years would be able to confirm that this special mood cannot simply be shifted to or even be substituted by an online event format.

Nevertheless, and especially as nearly all opportunities for technology exchange and to meet are taken away in these times, the EMVA is working on setting up the 18th Business Conference with a reduced programme in an online format to take place at Friday, June 26th, 2020.

The online conference event will provide technical insights by presentations and networking opportunities through pre-scheduled virtual face-to-face meetings during the breaks.

Further details may be found soon at www.business-conference-emva.org and/or www.emva.org, and we will of course keep you informed with regular updates to our mailing list.

19th EMVA Business Conference 2021 – SAVE THE DATE

EMVA Board of Directors, management and the whole team is looking forward to meeting you at the 19th EMVA Business Conference taking place 10 – 12 June 2021, in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Don’t miss the opportunity to join one of the highlight vision events in 2021 and save the date right now!

Stay well, stay safe, and best regards,

Thomas Lübkemeier

EMVA General Secretary

Due to the cancellation of Control today, the planned Control Vision Talks lecture forum will not be held this year. We are very sorry about this, but we fully understand the necessity of cancelling the fair due to the circumstances caused by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) .

As the next Control will not take place until May 4 to 7, 2021, we will send out a new Call for Papers for Control Vision Talks 2021 at the end of this year.

Share your expertise on the focal topic:

Accuracy, Reliability and Limits of Machine Vision

You are invited to submit your valuable contribution to this focal topic. Submit your extended abstract for a contributed talk or poster no later than May 8, 2020, via our Submission Tool.

All submissions are openly reviewed by the joint Scientific and Industrial Advisory Board of the forum and everyone, who has submitted a contribution.

For more Information, please visit “5^th European Machine Vision Forum – Call for Contributions” or sign in for submission of your contribution at https://submission.emva-forum.org/

IMPORTANT: Cancellation of the Control Vision Talks Lecture Forum

Due to the cancellation of Control today (March 17, 2020), the planned Control Vision Talks lecture forum will not be held this year. We are very sorry about this, but we fully understand the necessity of cancelling the fair due to the circumstances caused by the COVID-19 (coronavirus). As the next Control will not take place until May 4 to 7, 2021, we will send out a new Call for Papers for Control Vision Talks 2021 at the end of this year.

At this year’s CONTROL, you will have the opportunity to be certified as an EMVA 1288 expert within 90 minutes. Using the form below, you can easily register for EMVA 1288 certification at “User Level” or “Expert Level”.

EMVA 1288 Certification at CONTROL 2020

Date: May 7, 2020  – 10:30 a.m.

Place: CONTROL, Hall 8, Meeting Room 8.2

Particiption fee:   200,- Euros for EMVA member entities / 250,- Euros for non-members

What know-how should you ideally have for participation:

You can easily learn the necessary background knowledge for the 90-minute “User Level” exam by watching the video tutorials on the “EMVA 1288” standard. If you want to obtain the “Expert Level” certification, you should already have some experience with EMVA 1288 measurements and the necessary basic theoretical knowledge.

And here cou can register right away: Registration EMVA 1288 Certification at CONTROL 2020

The EMVA Business Conference 2020, 25 – 27 June, Sofia, will again be a major highlight of the year for the vision industry.

The almost complete programme of this year’s EMVA Business Conference is very promising: once again, the focus will be on the hot topics of the vision industry, presented by top speakers.

The keynotes are expected to be particularly interesting this year:

Liam Halligan, best known for his long-standing weekly “Economics Agenda” column in The Sunday Telegraph and honoured with the British Press Award, gives an insight into the future economic development with the topic “The Big Picture – Global Economic Outlook”.

Dr. Stephan Sigrist, Founder and head of the think tank W.I.R.E., has spent many years analysing interdisciplinary developments in business and society, focusing on the implications of digitisation in the life sciences, financial services, media, infrastructure and mobility. The attendees of the EMVA Business Conference can look forward to the topic „Trust in the Age of Fake Realities – Why the Virtual Economy needs more Common Sense”.

A number of other top speakers have already been announced for the conference programme. Registration for the 18th EMVA Business Conference is open via: www.business-conference-emva.org.

With the end of 2019 and the beginning of the new year, EMVA is looking forward to further new members!

We welcome the sensor specialist ifm electronic, represented by more than 7,000 employees in over 85 countries worldwide. We extend a warm welcome to Matrox! Matrox, based in Montreal, Canada, has over 40 years of experience designing software and hardware solutions for graphics, video, and imaging/machine vision applications. And with Voyage 81 a very new enterprise has joined the EMVA. Voyage81 is a deep-tech startup poised to bring much needed innovation to the automotive and imaging market.