Machine vision technology is an important branch of computer science. Since its inception and development, its functions and application scope have gradually improved and promoted with the development of industrial automation.

In the 1950s, research began on statistical pattern recognition of two-dimensional images.
In the 1960s, American scholar Roberts began researching visual images of the polyhedral building block world.
In the mid-1970s, MIT's artificial intelligence laboratory officially offered a course on "machine vision".
Since the 1980s, a global research boom has begun, and machine vision has flourished, with new concepts and theories constantly emerging.
Nowadays, machine vision is still a very active research field, with related disciplines involving image processing, computer graphics, pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, artificial neural networks, and so on.

The Development History of Machine Vision in China:
Before 1990, there were only some laboratories in universities and research institutes that studied image processing and pattern recognition.
In the early 1990s, some engineers from these research institutions established their own vision companies and developed the first generation of image processing products, such as grayscale image acquisition cards based on ISA bus and some simple image processing software libraries. Their products were applied in university laboratories and some industrial occasions, allowing people to perform basic image processing and analysis work.
From 1990 to 1998, it was in the primary stage. During this period, the sales volume of the real machine vision system market was very small. The major international machine vision manufacturers have not yet entered the Chinese market. Since 1998, more and more electronic and semiconductor factories, including those invested in Hong Kong and Taiwan, have settled in Guangdong and Shanghai. A complete production line and advanced equipment with machine vision have been introduced to China.
The period from 1998 to 2002 was defined as the introduction period of machine vision concepts. At this stage, many well-known visual equipment suppliers, such as Cognex, DVT, CCS, Data Translation, Matrix, Coreco, began to contact the Chinese market to seek local partners, but few local partners met the requirements. For example, Beijing Helishi Motor Technology Co., Ltd. has been selected as the main agent or solution provider by five foreign companies.
Since 2002, we have called it the development period of machine vision, and China's machine vision has shown a rapid growth trend.

The current development status of machine vision: Machine vision has formed several important research branches: firstly, image processing for target guidance; 2、 Parallel algorithms for image processing and analysis; 3、 Extracting three-dimensional information from two-dimensional images; 4、 Sequence image analysis and motion parameter evaluation; 5、 Representation of visual knowledge; 6、 Knowledge base for visual systems, etc.

Currently, the application of machine vision has surpassed its traditional inspection field and expanded towards deeper and more diverse fields. At the same time, the procurement volume of machine vision products is also steadily increasing.

Objectively speaking, both domestically and internationally, China's machine vision industry started relatively late and its concentration was not very high. Initially, it mainly represented foreign brands. In recent years, many distributors have started to independently develop products, but there is still a certain gap compared to foreign countries in terms of industry distribution, channel distribution, and mature automation products, and the market is far from saturated. Machine vision enterprises can generally be divided into layer development manufacturers, secondary development manufacturers, and product agents. Domestic machine vision enterprises are mainly machine vision product agents and system secondary development manufacturers. China is in a period of transition from labor-intensive to technology-intensive, and there is a strong demand for machine vision solutions that improve generation efficiency and reduce labor costs. Therefore, it is becoming one of the most active regions in the global development of machine vision technology. The Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, as international transfer destinations for electronic and semiconductor technology, have also become gathering places for machine vision technology. Many internationally advanced machine vision systems have entered China, and domestic machine vision enterprises are constantly thriving in the benign competition with international machine vision enterprises. Many universities and research institutes are also committed to researching machine vision technology. In recent years, domestic enterprises in the machine vision related industry, such as Haikang, Dahua, Obi Zhongguang, Shangtang, and Juzi, have continuously grown and grown.