Late 1960s/1970s
First categorisation of artificial intelligence into two distinct study groups - Logic Theorist and Pattern Recognition
Thousands of different studies into artificial intelligence now taking place
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) develops first real use of image processing in an industrial context with the Block Micro World project driving a robot arm
David Marr an English psychologist working at MIT is the forerunner for modern vision systems with his ideas on visual processing

1980s
Image Processing and Machine Vision now a field of study in their own right
Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and MIT promoting adoption of machine vision with robot control, licencing technology to commercial companies
Grayscale machine vision algorithms developed (8 bit) and single board image processors available
Windows 1.0 released in 1985
Vision industry setback with the collapse of Machine Vision International in 1988
Cameras begin to be manufactured specifically for industrial applications and the machine vision market
Mass adoption of machine vision by semiconductor manufacturers

1990s
Massive growth of machine vision industry fuelled by availability of industrial systems - large M & A activity within the industry
Step forward with release of Windows 32 bit OS - Windows 95
Smart cameras start to become available using proprietary processing chips
Accelerated use of standard PC technology and Windows OS for machine vision
Neural network algorithms introduced into main stream machine vision systems
Development of graphical interfaces for ease of programming and deployment on the shop floor

2000s
Development of ergonomic system solutions for factory integration
Machine vision industry adopts FireWire (IEEE1394) digital camera technology
Market continues to expand rapidly with smart cameras and sensors
GigE camera technology joins Firewire as accepted standard within machine vision industry
Smart and intelligent cameras readily available
Increased use of datamatrix code readers within industry

2010s
3D algorithms are starting to be developed
Windows 7 64 Bit with .NET technology will form the basis for future PC based machine vision solutions