Machine Vision Systems Consultancy

		Don Braggins set up his independent consultancy specialising in Image Processing and Analysis at the beginning of 1983. Prior to that he was Product Marketing Manager for Image Analysis products at Cambridge Instruments. He is a graduate of Clare College, Cambridge, a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of S.P.I.E., the International Society for Optical Engineering. His original involvement with the application and marketing of image analysis equipment dates back to 1964. He is a director and committee member of the UK Industrial Vision Association, which he helped to found in 1992 and has administered since 1995. In May 2003 he was elected to the Executive Committee of the newly formed European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) and was re-elected in 2006. He has served as a Reviewer for several EU-funded projects concerned with image capture and processing and machine vision. Since 2000 he has served on the Innovation Prize jury of the Stuttgart Vision exhibition. From 1989 until 2002 he contributed to Advanced Imaging magazine (USA). He also contributes to other publications (including writing in English for the German magazine Sensor Report) dealing with sensors, automation, and engineering, explaining the role of vision and related technologies to their readership, and putting innovations in these fields into context. In April 2002 he received an 'Outstanding Service Award' for his contributions over many years to 'Sensor Review' magazine, of which he is Associate Editor. In June 2005 he became Associate Editor for Pattern Recognition and Machine Vision of the peer-reviewed journal Optical Engineering. From 1986 to 2003 he regularly researched the European market for industrial vision systems, for individual clients and initially for reports published by Frost & Sullivan and, in more recent years, the Automated Imaging Association. This work is now undertaken by EMVA. Between 2000 and 2002 he served as a non-executive board member of Fastcom Technology, a Swiss spin-out from EPFL Lausanne, as a result of doing due diligence work for a potential (but unsuccessful) investor and subsequently being invited by Fastcom management. The company disposed of its machine vision activities to another local firm. As a result of 'due diligence' work for Barings Private Equity Partners, who subsequently invested $2 Million in Falcon Vision of Budapest, Hungary, in April 2002 he was nominated as a member of the Board of Falcon Vision, with an emphasis on international marketing advice and technology sourcing. He ceased to be a director in May 2005 after the French company Edixia, which he had introduced to Falcon Vision, bought a controlling stake in Falcon Vision.
		Machine Vision Systems is an independent consultancy providing information and advice to clients on a direct fee basis. No income is derived, directly or by way of commission, from sales of equipment or software to clients. Current activities, in addition to administering the UK Industrial Vision Association on behalf of its members, are mainly both in the UK and abroad for potential investors or assisting University departments with outward technology transfer or start-ups in the field of vision. For prospective end-users of vision systems, or Original Equipment Manufacturers seeking to utilise vision to improve the functionality of their products, MVS will normally seek to place the client in a position of being able to seek competitive bids from suitably qualified suppliers against a specification which is well understood by the client. Assistance in evaluating bids and implementing systems is available if required, but ideally if the initial objectives are met clients are able to carry out an informed evaluation themselves. Clients vary from multinationals in the automotive, packaging and photographic industries to small start-up (and even pre-start-up) operations, from venture capital providers to machinery manufacturers, and geographically have ranged from Sweden to Italy and from the United States to Taiwan.
		MVS Consultancy is a founder member of the UK Industrial Vision Association and currently administers the Association on behalf of its members.

		For information about North American vision system and equipment suppliers, try the Automated Imaging Association Web Site


		Machine Vision Systems Consultancy 90, High Street, Meldreth Royston, Herts SG8 6LB, UK Phone +44 (0)1763 260333 Fax +44 (0)1763 261961 don@braggins.com Click here for location map as a GIF (prints better than screen image) Click here for location map as a .PDF file (Better viewing if you have Acrobat Reader)