AIA and the Association for Advancing Automation are hosting a week-long virtual conference, AIA Vision Week 2020, covering the latest in machine vision and imaging innovations.
Broken into 5 tracks, each day of AIA Vision Week will bring you a new set of sessions geared to help you with your current vision challenges and questions. As part of AIA Vision Week, you will have the opportunity to connect with more than 100 leading vision and imaging companies. Learn about their technology innovations and how they can help your company successfully deploy its vision to increase your quality, efficiency, and global competitiveness.

About AIA Vision Week

AIA brings you a full week of educational conference sessions, enlightening keynote speakers, and connections to the industry’s top suppliers showcasing the latest vision and imaging technologies – all from your convenient computer, tablet, or mobile phone screen.

Participation is FREE and anyone working with vision and imaging technologies – or those who would like to – are encouraged to register.

You’ll get access to educational sessions that are taught by leading vision experts where you’ll learn how vision can help you increase profitability, improve throughput, reduce defects, comply with regulations, solve your automation problems, and more!

Whether you are seeking entry-level training for a basic understanding of machine vision, imaging, and sensors, or are looking for more advanced solutions, AIA Vision Week has something for you.

Each day of the week, starting Monday, May 18, we’ll have multiple conference sessions, followed by a break, then we’ll resume with more topics. The conference will be presented live based on Eastern Daylight Time (GMT-4), starting about 10:00 am EDT and ending at about 3:00 pm EDT each day. See the agenda for details.

Be sure to spend time in the Vision Products Showcase, where you can see the latest in vision and imaging technologies and connect with more than 100 leading companies. You can learn about their technology innovations and how they can help your company successfully deploy its vision to increase your quality, efficiency, and global competitiveness.

AIA Vision Week Study Tracks

At this time, The AIA vision Week agenda is available in full. There are 5 unique learning tracks that attendees can leverage to learn more about each technology’s unique applications. Keynote speakers are delivering informative talks and breakout sessions deliver detailed looks into more specific areas of machine vision technology. come with questions and be prepared to learn about the latest in technological innovation relating to Machine Vision, AI, applications, and robotics. Here are the available learning tracks:

About The AIA – The World’s Largest Machine Vision Trade Association

Founded in 1984, the AIA was organized specifically to advance the global understanding and implementation of vision and imaging technologies to help our members grow. We are committed to providing support and leadership on common industry issues.

Today, AIA is the world’s largest global vision and imaging trade group serving over 375 member companies from 32 countries. Our members include manufacturers of vision components and systems, system integrators, distributors, OEMs, end-users, consulting firms, academic institutions, and research groups directly involved with vision and imaging.

Key AIA activities include standards development for the industry; market research and analysis (including a quarterly Vision Market Report for members); trade show sponsorship – The Vision Show and Automate; educational workshops, conferences, and networking opportunities throughout the world; Online and in-person certification training; and Vision Online, the world’s leading resource for vision and imaging information.

We invite you to see AIA’s Vision of the Future video here.

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


Implement Epicor ERP

To scale operations alongside the company’s recently enjoyed growth, Metaphase has contracted the services of Encompass Solutions to implement Epicor ERP, train staff, and support operations through Go-Live and beyond. With the project plan finalized, implementation, testing, and user training are projected to be completed by the end of this year. Find out why Metaphase chose Encompass Solutions to implement their ERP solution in our interview with Metaphase President Kevin High, here.

The Project

Metaphase Technologies Inc. is a leading manufacturer of machine vision and specialty LED lighting.  They develop products that advance “The Quality of Light” through the engineering and manufacturing of LED illuminators for machine vision, military, and specialty lighting applications.  Because Metaphase is projecting another year of 20% growth, they require a system that supports its growth without the necessity of increasing its labor force.

The Challenge

Currently, Metaphase Technologies operates on IQMS ERP and are looking to replace the system due to its labor-intensive nature.  Most of Metaphase Technologies’ production is manual, but it is necessary to scan in and out of those processes on the shop floor.  Quality is critical to their business; therefore, quality checks are performed when materials are received, during the manufacturing process, and before shipping. Because Metaphase Technologies ships its products globally, multi-language support is essential. Additionally, the ability to price for shipping companies, integrate UPS and FedEx into the system for customer information, and maintain the applicable rates in real time is essential to the project’s success.

The Goals

Metaphase Technologies will be implementing their Epicor ERP solution with the following goals in mind:

  • Efficiently managing global business operations
  • Providing better information to make more informed decisions
  • Supporting Engineer-to-Order Manufacturing (ETO)
  • Providing visibility to manage and track costs to measure and improve profitability
  • Supporting traceability requirements for warranties and material tracking
  • Growing revenue and profitability

The Metaphase Technologies team will be taking advantage of this project to review and update business processes while leveraging standard software capabilities whenever possible. Additionally, there is a desire to streamline ETO processes through the use of technology.

About Metaphase Technologies

For more than two decades, Metaphase Technologies has been developing products that advance “The Quality of Light” through the engineering and manufacture of uniform diffuse high brightness and ultra brightness LED illuminators. Metaphase’s illuminators are specially designed for applications in machine vision, military, and specialty lighting. Metaphase boasts expertise in engineering flexible lighting solutions for ease of integration into vision systems design. The company’s LED illuminators are currently utilized in thousands of applications throughout the world, including vision-guided robotics, automation systems, line scan inspection units, and many others across the machine vision industry.

Metaphase Technologies Selects Encompass Solutions For Epicor ERP Implementation

As the first to standardize built-in constant current drivers, Metaphase continues to synergize cutting-edge machine vision LED lighting & control technologies to simplify innovation and increase customer return on investment.

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm specializing in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


In the wake of the recent Uber autonomous vehicle collision, Uber Technologies Inc. has decided to halt its field testing of autonomous vehicles in cities like Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto, and Phoenix after one of its autonomous vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. It has been reported that the pedestrian stepped in front of the autonomous vehicle suddenly, which will likely take focus as authorities continue investigating the incident that occurred Sunday night.

What is known at this point is that the woman had crossed the street outside of a crosswalk when she was struck. At the time of the Uber autonomous vehicle collision, a human safety driver supervising inside the cabin of the vehicle said the incident occurred “like a flash”. The supervisor also reported their first indication of the collision was the sounds of the collision itself. Some experts following the industry closely expressed significant alarm when it was revealed no braking or swerving maneuvers were enacted to avoid the collision. The incident took place around 10 pm local time, at which point the pedestrian was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. She later succumbed to her injuries. According to local authorities, Uber is cooperating fully with the Tempe Police Department during the investigation.

Uber Autonomous Vehicle Collision Industry Effects

The incident has far-reaching implications for the highly-scrutinized societal integration of autonomous vehicles, which incorporate machine vision and AI in hopes of revolutionizing the auto industry, how we travel, and how urban population centers function. Already, tens of billions of dollars and years of research have been invested in the technology by companies like Alphabet Inc., General Motors Co., and Baidu Inc.

Despite what the news would have you believe in the wake of like the one used during the Uber autonomous vehicle collision, relatively great strides have been made in the last five years regarding autonomous vehicles. This is due largely in part to a rather relaxed regulatory system surrounding the technology. The Department of Transportation removed significant hurdles in autonomous vehicle testing just last year. Many experts fear the recent event will have a significant impact on the regulatory environment of autonomous vehicles moving forward. In contrast to DoT actions, The National Transportation Safety Board has begun its investigation into the matter and sent a small team of investigators to Tempe for a closer look, in addition to advocating for stricter policies on autonomous vehicles.

Machine Vision Is The Foundation Of Autonomous Vehicles

Despite all the attention, autonomous vehicles have enjoyed in recent years, the concept is far from new and the vision technology that powers the concept has been in development since the 60s. SRI’s Shakey was the first mobile robot to utilize a computer vision system for navigating terrain and obstacles. The JPL robot and the Stanford Cart followed as the technology became more refined, though none could compare with the level of machine vision and AI systems utilized by autonomous vehicles today.

More modern vision systems would emerge, such as the Ralph vision system, to help automobiles navigate using sampled images that assessed road curvature and determined the positioning of a vehicle relative to a roadway’s center. Today, LIDAR, a light-based radar vision, is the system of choice. By utilizing a series of “eyes” embedded within the autonomous vehicle’s body, it functions using sensors that send out pulses of invisible light from lasers and records how long it takes to receive a signal back from the surface of an object, in this case, the light’s reflection. Camera-based methods are also utilized as autonomous vehicle vision systems. These systems help create 2D and 3D images of objects just like a human eye would. In this case, multiple cameras are positioned around the vehicle to provide a full field of vision that mimics that of a real driver. Specialized software is then used to “learn” human behavior and model the objects adjacent to and within the roadway.

A third vision approach to autonomous vehicle systems emerged in late 2017 from Israeli start-up AdaSky. The AdaSky system utilizes Far Infrared (FIR) perception that the company has coined as Viper.

The technology is not new, but AdaSky CEO Avi Katz claims they are the first to apply the technology to autonomous vehicle vision systems in hopes of avoiding incidents like the Uber autonomous vehicle collision. The system is built to complement peripheral vision systems and sensing technology like LIDAR, radar, and cameras. According to Katz, the increased capacity for classification, identification, and detection of objects enables autonomous vehicles to better understand and interact with their surroundings, making them much safer as a result.

Machine Vision Beyond The Roadway

Machine vision systems have become incredibly advanced both on the road and on the assembly line. Powerful software and components identify these objects’ surroundings and enable them to more elaborately interact with their environments. The machine vision systems in use today largely govern image-based inspection, process control, and robot guidance. While autonomous vehicles and futuristic technologies garner the lion’s share of attention from the media and the general population, Machine vision already has an incredible impact on our daily lives. Indeed, machine vision influences many aspects of our daily lives, from the parts in our cars, the appearance and packaging of our food, the quality of our medical devices, and even lab specimens all passing through some sort of machine vision system before they reach their destination.

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm specializing in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.