Early Obstacles

Cognex patents

Cognex received one of its first patents for Search, a powerful
software tool that dramatically improved machine vision
performance by enabling quick, accurate location of patterns
in gray-scale images. Cognex now has a portfolio of more than
250 patents for advances in machine vision technology.

Despite a growing list of customers using Cognex vision, serious challenges soon became apparent in the company’s business model.  Implementing a vision application in these early years required computer programming knowledge, and users demanded considerable support.

In addition, factory conditions were unpredictable.  Early systems often did not perform reliably outside of development laboratories, where factors like lighting, reflections and shadows could be controlled.   Misperceptions about what vision could realistically achieve combined with poor reliability in factory settings resulted in many vision companies spending too much time supporting customer applications.  As a result, Cognex…and every other company that had entered the vision business… was losing money.

In 1986, Cognex made a major technical breakthrough that helped solve the problem of system reliability.   Cognex co-founder Bill Silver developed a powerful software tool called Search that could locate patterns in gray scale images very quickly and accurately, and succeeded in dramatically improving the results that users could achieve with their vision systems.

At the same time, Cognex launched a new business strategy that helped ensure the company’s survival and subsequent market leadership.

That strategy was to develop and sell standard machine vision hardware and software products to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), who could integrate machine vision into the manufacturing equipment they sold into factories.  These OEMs had engineers on staff with the expertise to program the vision applications, and who then supplied end-users with equipment that had the vision already built in.

This combination of superior technology and new business direction provided the winning recipe that would help Cognex succeed and grow, while the majority of other early vision companies soon failed or got out of the business.