 HALCON 13.0.1 offers standard support for ARM®-based architectures for the first time  Improved functions for evaluating the quality of data codes  Release date: June 1, 2017

Munich, May 11, 2017 - With the new HALCON 13.0.1 release, MVTec Software GmbH (www.mvtec.com), the leading provider of innovative machine vision technologies, now makes its machine vision software readily available for ARM-based platforms running the Linux operating system. This version provides a straightforward way to use HALCON's powerful functions on the widely distributed ARM processing technology. The ability to easily integrate HALCON software into ARM-based computing platforms significantly expands the range of devices on which customers can deploy their machine vision applications, and opens up new opportunities and use cases for solution providers. The new HALCON release also offers a number of improved features including better grading of data-codes and optimizations for developers using the Visual Studio extension. HALCON 13.0.1 will be available beginning June 1, 2017 and can be downloaded from the MVTec website.

Many years of experience with embedded vision
MVTec has many years of experience in porting HALCON on a customized basis to embedded platforms such as Android, BeagleBoard-xM, and DragonBoard, as well as other embedded systems. This provides companies with the ability to run an extensive machine vision library on compact and robust hardware devices such as smart cameras and mobile vision sensors. Customers can develop their machine vision applications on a standard platform - a PC, for example -, then run the application on an embedded system, and thereby employ an extensive machine vision library.
HALCON 13.0.1 however supports ARM-based platforms as a standard, without the need for customized porting. The system also includes standard image acquisition interfaces such as GenICam and GigE Vision.

The new HALCON version was tested on a number of hardware platforms, including Raspberry Pi 3B, NVIDIA Tegra TK1, and Xilinx Zedboard. Moving forward, every new maintenance and major HALCON release will be readily available for use on ARM-based platforms. HALCON 13.0.1 contains various new and enhanced features. Thus, developers in the Visual Studio environment benefit, for example, from the improved and accelerated visualization of graphic objects. The new release also supports VB .NET.

"ARM is a widely distributed and popular architecture in the area of embedded systems," states Johannes Hiltner, Product Manager HALCON at MVTec. "Now that HALCON is available to run on ARM-based platforms by default, customers can seamlessly use the accustomed robust functions of their standard machine vision software in an extremely diverse landscape of embedded systems."

Addressing the exact needs of the embedded market
Dr. Olaf Munkelt, Managing Director of MVTec Software GmbH, adds: "With HALCON 13.0.1, we address the needs of the rapidly growing embedded vision market. Driven by the emergence and growth of the Internet of Things, sensors are becoming smarter and smaller, even in the non-industrial environment. Many of these sensors and systems are using ARM processors. By addressing this trend in the new HALCON version, we are enabling customers to place their image processing algorithms on a vastly wider range of devices with little effort."

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About HALCON
MVTec HALCON is the comprehensive standard software for machine vision with an integrated development environment (HDevelop) that is used worldwide. It enables cost savings and improved time to market. HALCONs flexible architecture facilitates rapid development of any kind of machine vision application. MVTec HALCON provides outstanding performance and a comprehensive support of multi-core platforms and special instruction sets like AVX2, NEON, as well as GPU acceleration. It serves all industries, with a library used in hundreds of thousands of installations in all areas of imaging like blob analysis, morphology, matching, measuring, identification, and 3D vision. The software secures your investment by supporting a wide range of operating systems and providing interfaces to hundreds of industrial cameras and frame grabbers, in particular by supporting standards like GenICam, GigE Vision, and USB3 Vision.

About MVTec
MVTec is a leading manufacturer of standard software for machine vision. MVTec products are used in all demanding areas of imaging: Semi-conductor industry, web inspection, quality control and inspection applications in general, medicine, 3D vision, and surveillance. MVTec, with its head office in Munich (Germany), has more than 30 established distributors worldwide and in addition, MVTec, LLC works out of Boston, MA (USA). www.mvtec.com

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