Philip Russo, Webview president, says the driving force behind developing this product was to make machine vision compact, smart and affordable. “During the years that Webview has done system integration, we’ve been told many times that machine vision is too expensive,” he explains. “So we decided (with this program) to make it affordable. We were able to reduce the cost and size of the package and make it environmentally friendly. Power usage is much lower than with traditional systems; yet, output is powerful.”
In the past, machine vision required the use of large computer, rack-
mounted systems that cost up to $200,000, according to Russo. Systems are now available in the $20,000 to $40,000 range. In contrast, the Sentinel system is priced around $3,000. Thus, it is being marketed as an affordable solution to parts inspection.