Today the EMVA has over 150 members from all over the world, not only from Europe. What is the motivation of companies to join the association?
The EMVA is now the leading European trade association for vision tech and plays an important role in the industry. Vision is an enabling technology for many different verticals, and our members provide many different products and solutions; from image sensors and processors, through cameras and vision components, to complete system solutions. The membership ranges from small companies to major multinationals, as well as research and academic institutes. The uniting theme is an understanding that vision is a strategic topic which enables many different applications and industries, and that continued growth of the market can be helped by participation in a trade association that is solely focused on vision tech.
The EMVA provides many opportunities for companies to meet and establish cooperative partnerships. Many of our members value the networking opportunities EMVA events such as the annual Business Conference and European Machine Vision Forum provide. Recent initiatives to help share knowledge and expertise on increasingly important topics such as cybersecurity and patent trolling have been very well received by our members. Our members are also very active in standards development. As pointed out, this is an important topic in a fast-growing market where global standards simplify end-user adoption as well as creating a platform for further innovation.
The EMVA is working with Khronos on the Kamaros Embedded Camera API standard. What are the association’s goals here?
The EMVA cooperation with Khronos is an important development initiative for embedded vision. Several years ago, both the EMVA and Khronos saw the potential need for an open API standard to ease the development of embedded vision platforms. The EMVA established a cooperation with Khronos and formed a cross-industry exploratory group which worked for a year to clearly establish the need and scope for a new embedded camera API. The new Kameros standardization effort is now hosted by Khronos and is actively developing the first API specification towards its first release. EMVA member companies are able to join the associated advisory group at no cost, giving an opportunity to both understand and provide feedback to the development of the API, or can also join Khronos and directly participate in the working group. The EMVA is looking forward to supporting the next stages of development of the API. Kameros has the potential to open many opportunities for companies in the industry as well as ease the path for companies to address additional markets and develop new products. At the same time, companies will be able to use their own expertise to create products and solutions that provide value in specific applications or sectors.
What do you wish for the next 20 years and what are the future goals of the association?
The vision market continues to grow, supported by increasing demand for vision tech. The EMVA will continue to take forward the original mission to create a pan-European association which exists to promote the benefits of vision tech and increase the global competitiveness of its members. However, as the industry expands and evolves, the EMVA must also reflect the ongoing needs of our members.
With a changing geopolitical and global market landscape, it is more important than ever that the EMVA provides a strong voice for the vision industry in Europe, reflecting the views of our members, while also continuing to cooperate with other industry associations across the globe.
With many new companies entering the vision sector, and as our membership grows, the EMVA will continue to offer a central forum in Europe for networking. We aim to create the space to foster new partnerships and collaborations with the same sense of community which has defined the association since its inception.
Our membership represents many highly innovative and successful companies in the vision industry with tremendous expertise and knowledge. The EMVA must also place a larger emphasis on connecting this capability with new opportunities in important vertical markets such as logistics, agriculture, med-tech, and others.
Effective standards will remain highly relevant. The EMVA is committed to ensuring that machine vision standards are consistent and globally adopted for the benefit of all companies in the market. This is only made possible through the ongoing commitment and support of our standards working groups and the companies which provide their expertise and knowledge.
We can look forward to an exciting period in the industry as the market grows and vision tech becomes ever more ubiquitous. The EMVA is excited to support our members for the next twenty years and beyond, as the leading European association for networking, promotion, and standardization in the vision sector. And in the near term I look forward to celebrate EMVA’s 20th anniversary together with many industry players during the 21st EMVA Business Conference from May 4 to 6 in Seville.
