Manufacturers and brand owners are under tremendous pressure to ensure premium end-to-end product quality, especially as consumers increasingly demand perfection. And a great deal of that product quality pressure still falls on human visual inspection.

While artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining favor as a solution to quality problems, it brings a number of new, sometimes confusing, terms. As a first step, many manufacturers ask “What is AI?”

Deep learning has become a useful tool in the integration and implementation of machine vision systems in the automation environment.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning are interrelated concepts involved with computer-based learning from vast amounts of data – and then making predictions based on that information. This article will show how these technologies can provide good alternatives to traditional image processing, and how software works to make this happen. 

“There is no reason and no way that a human mind can keep up with an artificial intelligence machine by 2035,” predicted the techno-futurist philosopher Gray Scott. But the truth is more nuanced: automation will create as many opportunities for humans as it reduces. Here’s how manufacturers can greatly enhance their processes—and address the U.S.’s skills shortage.

For the past few decades, consumers have rewarded companies that customize their products and services to individual tastes and needs.

Due to rising labor costs and a shortage of skilled inspectors, today’s manufacturers are facing intense pressure to automate processes that rely on the senses of experienced human workers.