[Vision Conversation with Exhibitors] Interview with Chen Tian, Product Marketing Manager of Baumer (China) Co., Ltd.
2022-12-28

Q: VisionChina2022 (Shenzhen) exhibition, what products, technologies and solutions does Baomeng bring to the exhibition, and what are their highlights?

A: In this exhibition, Baomeng mainly displays two pieces of products. The first is a high-speed camera, which is a full set of 10 gigabit network cameras we bring. This series of cameras is mainly aimed at the high-speed detection market. Compared with the Internet cameras and USB cameras on the market, its transmission speed has been greatly improved. As far as high-speed cameras are concerned, from 600,000 pixels to 65 million pixels, Baomeng is the only manufacturer in the market that has made the entire 10G network camera series. The highest frame rate can support up to 1578 frames, which is suitable for many high-speed applications.

In addition to high-speed cameras, Baomeng also focused on displaying smart cameras for broad application markets. The smart camera is launched again; Two classifications. One is the AI intelligent camera with free programming, which is more used on the open platform, and users can freely program on the platform. The latest Nvidia AI processor is integrated on the open platform. Users can directly use AI algorithms to deploy their own programs to the camera and directly apply the camera to the scene without using an external PC. Strictly speaking, this freely programmable AI intelligent camera is also an edge detection device, which is very consistent with the current concepts of the Internet of Things and intelligent manufacturing.

The other is an integrated visual sensor. This sensor is internally integrated with algorithms. Compared with fixed algorithms, users can deploy cameras to applications through simple settings. Moreover, the camera itself integrates light source and lens, and users can also access the lens and light source externally. This mode greatly enhances the flexibility of application and the simplicity of operation. General users can choose this camera for visual applications when they get started.

The above two parts are the main products brought by Baomeng.

Q: How can the two types of products introduced above improve the market competitiveness of Baomeng?

A: As you can see, whether domestic brands or foreign established camera manufacturers, the increasingly fierce competition is more in the mainstream camera market, that is, the low-speed camera market. From the perspective of Baomeng, 10 gigabit network camera is the future trend.

With the increasing demand of users for frame rate, how to improve the frame rate has become a major focus. From the previous gigabit network bandwidth to the 10 gigabit network bandwidth, the frame rate also shows a rising trend. Compared with the occasion of high frame rate demand, the competitiveness of Baomeng has been greatly improved.

On the other hand, edge computing is also a hot topic because there are relatively many discussions about Industry 4.0 intelligent manufacturing. So cameras are actually a category of sensors. When applied to the customer's site, they can communicate with your network in a cloud like way. As just introduced, our newly launched AX series AI intelligent camera is a device that can detect edges. After algorithm processing, it can effectively communicate your data with the cloud. The deployment in this regard is also the embodiment of our core competitiveness.

Q: We believe that the problems that machine vision technology needs to overcome in the future are mainly in the following aspects: higher speed, integration with intelligent factories and Industry 4.0, transformation from 2D to 3D, detection of multi-dimensional and special materials, and special application scenarios. Do you have any deep understanding or supplement to the above mentioned? What positive technological upgrading or innovation has your company made in the above-mentioned technological trends?

A: With the increase of machine vision applications and the continuous improvement of customer needs, various applications have increasingly high requirements for machine vision, and many special detection applications need to use machine vision to detect. For example, how to detect transparent materials, glass materials, or plastic objects that are easily reflective, such as scratches on the mobile phone screen?

In response to this demand, Baomeng correspondingly launched a polarization camera. Compared with ordinary cameras, polarization cameras can effectively filter stray light, and can also present a very good picture in the case of severe reflection. This is the concept of polarization. It is specially designed for testing easily reflective, similar to glass surfaces, metal or plastic surfaces, and belongs to a relatively special application.

The continuous excavation of application scenarios has promoted the rapid evolution of machine vision market from 2D to 3D. Facing the increasing number of 3D application scenarios, Baomeng has purposely launched a preprocessing 3D camera, which provides a 3D algorithm for laser contour extraction. Customers can use this camera to extract the 3D features of the detected objects, and then generate 3D images through software.

In addition, the 3D contour sensor launched by Baomeng can directly present the contour of an object in a three-dimensional way through linear laser scanning, such as height, direction, arc, diameter, radius and other features, which is another popular application direction of 3D technology.

Q: As the machine vision market continues to mature, more and more enterprises begin to transform from product oriented enterprises to service oriented enterprises. What do you think about this?

A: This problem mainly depends on the market we are facing. For the convection camera market, with the deepening of machine vision applications, the technology has been relatively mature. In addition, the competition among domestic camera brands is very fierce. In this market, we are not only focusing on products, but also on the added value of products, which makes customers feel that besides cameras, other service experiences are also very good. How to provide customers with added value, we are also working in this direction.

For example, we want to show our products to customers in a very good way, but the newly developed products are strange to customers, who cannot know how to match their own applications at the first time. This requires camera manufacturers to provide customers with a complete set of solutions through software or other services by understanding the needs of customers, combining the characteristics of cameras, so as to fully show the characteristics of camera products and solve customer problems.

Q: Which segments of machine vision are you optimistic about?

A: In recent years, the growth rate of China's machine vision market has been at a high level, rising steadily every year. From the perspective of application, I am optimistic about the semiconductor industry. Due to some international factors, the domestic chip industry has been "choked", which is both a difficulty and an opportunity for us. From the 14th Five Year Plan and the policies of the 20th National Congress, we can see that the country attaches great importance to the semiconductor industry. In the future, the country will certainly have more investment in the semiconductor industry, including semiconductor equipment and various supply chain equipment. The machine vision technology associated with it also faces significant challenges. For example, detecting the internal defects of the wafer, how to detect the internal defects, and how to achieve high-precision alignment at the micron level are all problems to be solved by machine vision. Baomeng launched a shortwave infrared camera with active cooling function this year. This camera is specially designed for the detection of semiconductor material silicon (Si). It has excellent penetration characteristics and can detect internal defects well, while ensuring high-precision alignment during wafer bonding.

From a technical perspective, 3D detection is the main trend of future machine vision development, so the corresponding 3D detection industry will also be a very popular track in the future.

Q: What's your overall impression of this VisionChina (Shenzhen) exhibition? What are the expectations for the development of the domestic machine vision industry?

A: VisionChina is a very professional exhibition in the machine vision industry. As long as it is a mainstream brand, it will attend. At the exhibition, we can not only learn about some of the most advanced products, technologies and solutions in the machine vision industry, but also learn about the hot market trends and the latest industry information.

In addition, customers coming to the exhibition are generally those who have professional needs for machine vision. Through the exhibition, we can directly communicate with customers to understand their actual needs, which is a very important platform for machine vision manufacturers.

Although the VisionChina (Shenzhen) exhibition in 2022 was affected by the epidemic, it was held as scheduled, which greatly encouraged the morale of machine vision manufacturers. From the scene of the exhibition, there are many exhibitors and visitors, which is also something that our machine vision manufacturers like to see.

The machine vision industry in China has grown rapidly in recent years, with the compound annual growth rate basically above 30%. Therefore, China's machine vision industry will certainly have more demand for machine vision applications in the future, and the machine vision industry market is very worthy of everyone's expectation. Of course, for machine vision manufacturers, it is both an opportunity and a challenge. We need to constantly understand customer needs, launch new products, and solve customer problems, including product upgrading and service transformation.

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