Cognex Corporation is an American manufacturer of
machine vision
Machine vision is the technology and methods used to provide image, imaging-based automation, automatic inspection and analysis for such applications as automatic inspection, process control, and robot guidance, usually in industry. Machine vision ...
systems, software and sensors used in automated manufacturing to inspect and identify parts, detect defects, verify product assembly, and guide assembly robots. Cognex is headquartered in
Natick, Massachusetts
Natick ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 37,006 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. west of Boston, Natick is part o ...
, USA and has offices in more than 20 countries.
Cognex began exploring commercial applications of machine vision in the early 1980s. In the 1990s, Cognex's business grew due to a demand for machine vision tools to help automate
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...
and electronics manufacturing. While semiconductor manufacturing remains an important market for Cognex, it has expanded to general manufacturing applications.
The company's product portfolio includes In-Sight, VisionPro software, and DataMan.
History
Cognex Corporation was founded in 1981 by
Robert J. Shillman, a lecturer in human visual perception at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
, and two MIT graduate students, Bill Silver and Marilyn Matz. Cognex stands for "Cognition Experts."
The company's first vision system, DataMan, was introduced in 1982. DataMan was an
optical character recognition
Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronics, electronic or machine, mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo ...
(OCR) system designed to read, verify, and assure the quality of letters, numbers, and symbols printed on products and components. The company's first customer was a typewriter manufacturer that purchased DataMan to read letters on typewriter keys and ensure that they were located in the correct position.
In 1989, Cognex went public on the
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...
exchange for $1.38 per share—within a year, the stock price had tripled.
In 1995, Cognex purchased Acumen, a U.S. based developer of wafer identification systems.
In 2004, the company won an
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
victory when a federal judge ruled in Cognex's favor in a patent lawsuit brought against the estate of the inventor
Jerome H. Lemelson, who had filed dozens of
submarine patents, some of which purported to cover machine vision processes. The machine vision-related patents were held invalid. The ruling was upheld by the
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Cognex sold off its in-vehicle product in 2007, citing concerns about profitability and intellectual property issue
In 2015 Cognex sold off its Surface Vision Division and the associated range of products SmartView (web inspection), Vision Gear (slit inspection), Smart Advisor (process surveillance, web monitoring) and VisionPro Surface to Ametek Inc. for approximately 160M US$. The sold division represented about 12% of Cognex in terms of revenue and number of employees.
In April 2017 Cognex acquired ViDi Systems, a Swiss-based provider of
deep learning
Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural networks to perform tasks such as classification, regression, and representation learning. The field takes inspiration from biological neuroscience a ...
software for industrial machine vision applications. In October 2019 Cognex acquired Sualab, a Korean-based developer of vision software using
deep learning
Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural networks to perform tasks such as classification, regression, and representation learning. The field takes inspiration from biological neuroscience a ...
for industrial applications.
During summer 2020 Cognex laid off 8% of its headcount (190 employees)
In December 2020 Cognex announced payment of $2 dividend per share. In the press release explaining this special dividend
the chairman,
Robert J. Shillman, referred to one of the company's mottos, to explain the highest dividend paid out in the company's history. This motto being: “When Cognex wins, we all win”.
On February 11, 2021, Cognex announced the resignation of Robert Shillman from the company's board of directors and as an executive officer of Cognex, effective May 5, 2021.
Products
Some of the products produced by Cognex are:
* In-Sight - a vision system that combines a camera, software and processor into one compact unit.
In April 2020, Cognex introduced the In-Sight D900 embedded vision system, which features
deep learning
Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural networks to perform tasks such as classification, regression, and representation learning. The field takes inspiration from biological neuroscience a ...
software inside an In-Sight industrial-grade smart camera. The system is designed to solve complex in-line inspection applications including
optical character recognition
Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronics, electronic or machine, mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo ...
(OCR), assembly verification, and defect detection.
* VisionPro vision software.
* DataMan - a family of fixed mount and handheld ID readers used to identify and track items by reading 1D and 2D Data Matrix codes.
* 3D Sensors
References
External links
Official website
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Commercial computer vision systems
Graphics hardware companies
Manufacturing companies based in Massachusetts
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Companies based in Natick, Massachusetts
1980s initial public offerings
Electronics companies established in 1981
Computer companies of the United States
Companies in the S&P 400