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Noninvasive optical techniques promise to enable in vivo imaging of cells and tissue with a resolution that reveals fine details of morphology. In particular, optical-coherence tomography (OCT) can provide cross-sectional [...]

Laser 2003 (June 23-26; Munich, Germany) seemed like a breath of fresh air after the generally lackluster Conference on Laser and Electro-Optics (CLEO; Baltimore, MD) earlier in June and the [...]

In the not-too-distant past, the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO; June 1-6, Baltimore, MD) was the premiere show for exhibitors and aficionados of optoelectronic technologies. Sometime between the telecom [...]

The article discusses the performance of the global laser markets (LM) in 2020 and provides forecasts for year 2021. Topics mentioned include the negative impacts of the U.S.-China trade war on the LM for materials processing, the decline in the revenue in the communications and optical storage segment, and the subsegments of the sensor sector including flow cytometry and spectroscopy.

The article reports that the impact of trade barriers and tariffs on laser market segments. Topics include the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development declared that trade conflict and persistent political uncertainty are weighing on the world economy and raising the risk of long-term stagnation, and the trade tariffs imposed by the U.S. on imports and similar tariffs imposed in retaliation by other countries have greatly impacted normal laser trade.

A DISCUSSION WITH TIMOTHY DAY OF NEW FOCUS Timothy Day is vice president, chief technology officer, and cofounder of New Focus (San Jose, CA), where he was responsible for the [...]

A DISCUSSION WITH ROHIT SHARMA OF ONI SYSTEMS Rohit Sharma is a member of the founding team at ONI Systems (San Jose, CA) and currently serves as chief technology officer, [...]

A DISCUSSION WITH J.J. PAN OF LIGHTWAVES 2020 talking technology J.J. Pan is founder and chairman of Lightwaves 2020. Along with his wife, he cofounded E-Tek Dynamics, which merged with [...]

A DISCUSSION WITH MIKE SCOTT OF NORTEL NETWORKS Mike Scott is vice president for technology and product development in high-performance optical-component solutions at Nortel Networks (Brampton, Ont., Canada). He has [...]

A DISCUSSION WITH CIENA'S STEVE ALEXANDER First in a new series that will feature in-depth interviews with leaders in WDM technology. Steve Alexander is senior vice president and chief technology [...]

If you had fallen into a deep sleep eight years ago--just before the U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996 took effect--and woke up at the 2003 National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference [...]

Quantum cryptography will theoretically enable completely secure optical communications by taking advantage of the fact that anyone trying to eavesdrop on an encrypted code key will change the quantum state [...]

Starting with the principal of total internal reflection, which guides light through optical fiber, the fundamentals of optics have led to some very successful telecommunications products. Such products are needed [...]

July in Tokyo is hot and humid, with the sky close and gray. It frequently rains. The weather must have been similar when Commodore Perry and his fleet of four [...]

'When the market comes back' is a turn of phrase heard often in telecom circles. None of us knows exactly what that market will look like if and when it [...]

High-power fiber-laser arrays can potentially produce tens or hundreds of kilowatts of output power, providing significant military capabilities. At the May Solid-State and Diode Laser Technology Review workshop, hosted by [...]

Learning the language of any new technology is often half the battle, according to Eric Ulmer, an applications engineer at GSI Lumonics (Billerica, MA) For example, designing a scanning system [...]

Amid general economic malaise, Aerosense 2003 (April 21-25; Orlando, FL) managed to position itself at the intersection of interesting technologies and diverse but growing markets. The boom in security and [...]

The cavernous halls of the Georgia World Congress Center made the turnout at Optical Fiber Communications 2003 (OFC; Atlanta, GA; March 23-28) seem even lighter than reality. The uncertain state [...]

The article presents interviews with Peter Leibinger and Christian Schmitz, vice chairman and president of the laser division of TRUMPF Group, respectively. According to Leibinger, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) is the most fascinating laser innovation. He also discusses the development of the EUV. Schmitz stresses that it is advantage to TRUMPF to be privately owned.

After the enormous impact genomics has had on understanding biological systems through genome sequencing, proteomics promises even greater rewards. In fact, clues to the solution of many biological problems in [...]

As airline fleets age, maintenance issues inevitably arise and aircraft inspection becomes more critical. Travelers suffering through recent airport delays associated with these issues surely understand the impact of aircraft [...]

High-contrast, sharply focused images are critical in the development of every imaging system. To obtain these images, many system designers use fixed-focused lenses that feature fewer moving parts and less [...]

The business and environmental costs are high for using fungicides and insecticides on agricultural crops. For example, maleic hydrazide and Prime Plus kill the sucker or auxiliary buds on green [...]

When Icelandic singer/performer Bjork took a machine-vision-based synthesizer on her recent Volta tour her group created a melodic blend of electronic music and image processing. A somewhat similar experience was [...]

Implementing a machine-vision system is not for the faint of heart. The challenges of integrating multiple vision and automation components into a complete system, whether on a factory floor or [...]

Balloon angioplasty provides cardiologists with a means to treat blockages of the arteries caused by coronary heart disease. To perform the procedure, cardiologists insert a long, thin tube with a [...]

Surveillance systems based on distributed camera networks are emerging as demand for enhanced safety has increased, including monitoring of power plants, shopping malls, hotels, museums, borders, airports, railroad stations, and [...]

Image-processing techniques, such as cast-shadow analysis, occluding-contour algorithms, and uncalibrated reconstruction of 3-D spaces, are typically associated with industrial machine-vision applications. Yet these techniques can be applied in other, very [...]

Most kinds of criminal behavior can be detected, investigated, and punished. But counterfeiters and document fraudsters often escape prosecution because it is difficult to connect them to their printing equipment [...]

Sometimes multiple imaging technologies can be combined to perform a new kind of compound application. This can be of particular value in the electronics industry, where the complexity, density, and [...]

Color-based machine vision has historically required more money and processing power than an equivalent monochrome solution, but recently color-based hardware and image-processing products have become more cost effective. As a [...]

As the population in many countries continues to age, machine vision may be a tool that benefits increasing numbers of patients. For example, many of the elderly develop glaucoma, a [...]

In a 1958 paper in Psychological Review, Frank Rosenblatt described the first neural network capable of learning through a simple reinforcement rule. The network learned by changing the weight applied [...]

High-speed web-inspection systems require high-resolution images to be captured by single or multiple linescan cameras that are deployed across the width of the web. With very high linescan rates, these [...]

Beyond industrial automation, the machine-vision industry is seeking new markets in areas such as transportation. Highway-safety-related applications often involve automated monitoring and enforcement. Yet another highway-safety application based on machine [...]

CMOS image sensors from vendors such as Eastman Kodak (Rochester, NY), Micron Technology (Boise, ID), and Omnivision (Sunnyvale, CA) are being used in products ranging from mobile phones and security [...]

Error proofing is a systematic process for improving the reliability, quality, and stability of manufacturing methods. In factory-automation applications, this process often relies on the use of noncontact sensors to [...]

Camera vendors are seeking to add value to their products by developing systems that image objects in more than one frequency spectrum. While visible-light cameras use the 400 to 700 [...]

Machine-vision systems that incorporate faster processors and better software algorithms are helping researchers monitor and commercial fisheries harvest numerous aquatic species. For example, in the Columbia River Basin in the [...]

Imaging is well known for applications in aerospace, from reconnaissance and remote sensing to weaponry and flight safety. Less well known is the growing role of imaging--specifically machine vision--in manufacturing [...]

Ultraviolet (UV) light interacts with materials in a unique way, enabling features and characteristics to be observed that are difficult to detect by other methods. It tends to be strongly [...]

For the past few years the economy of India has been developing at an increasingly rapid pace. From 2002 to 2006, it grew at 7.5% a year, positioning the country [...]

The telecommunications boom of the late 1990s produced many venture-capital-funded startups that were intended to commercialize university research. One of them, Aegis Semiconductor (Woburn, MA), used research from Princeton University [...]

Globalization is a trend affecting every industry and, depending on where you stand, is a force to be feared or embraced. To its advantage, the machine-vision industry has embraced this [...]

New standards and technologies usually take a While to develop, especially in the machine-vision industry. This spring, following a recent burst in development of Gigabit Ethernet cameras and with the [...]

Lighting is the most critical element in a machine-vision system, allowing the system to measure and interpret the energy reflected from objects. Recently lighting manufacturers have become more adept at [...]

Machine vision has been most commonly used in semiconductor, electronics, automotive, and general manufacturing applications. Recently, the stringent quality demanded of production processes by pharmaceutical companies has created rapidly growing [...]

Recent tradeshows have emphasized one thing above all: success is directly related to showing how components are integrated into systems. This was clear over the course of several seemingly disparate [...]

For many years, component manufacturers in the machine-vision industry have leveraged consumer, computer, and broadcast technologies to lower the cost of their products. For example, frame-grabber vendors have used broadcast-compatible [...]