The UK Industrial Vision Association (UKIVA) said this week that it will produce statistics on the sale of vision components and systems in the UK. The association also announced that it will present an imaging seminar at the Photonex Exhibition next month. UKIVA will conduct a quarterly survey among its members to collect and collate data on the number of units sold, according to category, including the following: smart cameras/sensors, code readers, compact vision systems, PC-based vision systems, machine vision cameras, 3-D systems, and systems deployed to end users. "Although a number of surveys are conducted periodically about the state of the machine vision market in different regions, there is no reliable data that relates to the UK vision market alone," said UKIVA Chairman Mark Williamson. "In order to address this situation, and to offer UKIVA members yet another benefit of membership, UKIVA is planning to address this omission." The sales data will be collated by a member of the Processing & Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA) team "in strict confidence, so no individual member will have access to another company's sales figures," Williamson said. "Once collated into total figures, this data will be made available to the participating companies only, but we will be able to publish trends in sales to the community at large." PPMA has carried out this activity for some time for the robot community within BARA, the British Automation and Robot Association, where it has proved to be an invaluable quarterly and annual benchmark for its member companies, who can compare their own sales performance to the industry, UKIVA said. UKIVA also said it will present an educational seminar on imaging at the Photonex Exhibition at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England, on Oct. 16 and 17. The association’s Vision in Action theme this year features seminars on how 3-D imaging can be used to address the tricky requirements needed to automate icing a cake; how imaging outside of visible wavelengths can give better accuracy, faster throughput and improved quality compared to traditional imaging for some applications; the benefits of the new USB 3.0 Vision Standard and how USB 3.0 cameras can be integrated into a system; the applications of laser lines in 3-D imaging and other measurement applications using structured light; and the use of hyperspectral imaging techniques. Making the presentations will be imaging specialists from Alrad Imaging, Gilden Photonics, Multipix Imaging, Scorpion Vision and Stemmer Imaging, UKIVA said. The program will begin at 10:45 a.m. on Oct. 16 and 17. Each presentation will last around 40 minutes, including a question and answer session. For more information, visit: www.ukiva.org