Continuous Innovation

Companies around the world rely on Cognex vision to optimize product quality, drive down manufacturing costs and control traceability.

female human inspector looking at part under blue light
When Cognex was founded in 1981, we were one of the first machine vision companies to get started when the subject was just emerging from academic laboratories.

We employ the best and brightest vision scientists and engineers in the world and we continue to invest heavily in our core vision technology. In many cases our R&D investment alone is greater than our competitors’ total annual revenue.

Cognex’s commitment to continuous innovation ensures our ability to continue to develop and deliver powerful vision tools that work for our customers in real environments throughout the world.

Largest team of vision experts
  • 37% of employees are engineers
  • 36% have advanced degrees

Largest installed base of systems
  • More than 900,000 installations
  • More than one billion products are made each day with Cognex vision

R&D Investment
  • 15% of revenue
  • 500+ man years

Intellectual property
  • 660+ patents issued or pending worldwide
  • Some of the tools and patented technologies include:
    • Hotbars
    • PatMax, PatFlex®, PatInspect®
    • IDMax®, IDQuick, 1DMax+, 2DMax+
    • UltraLight®
    • OCRMax™, OCVMax
    • MatchColor, ExtractColor
    • EasyBuilder®
    • Cognex VSoC
    • One-Click Setup
    • Internal Triggering

Major Milestones

  • Cognex Directory Server – 2013
    Enterprise network security for vision systems
  • DS1000 – 2013
    Factory-calibrated 3D machine vision inspection
  • DataMan 503 – 2013
    Area scan reader for challenging logistics applications
  • AE2 Advantage Engine – 2013
    OEM smart camera the size of a finger tip
  • OCRMax – 2012
    A new standard for industrial Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
  • In-Sight 7000 – 2012
    Small, tough and very smart vision system
  • Hotbars – 2012
    New technology for quickly reading 1-D linear barcodes
  • DataMan 300 – 2012
    Advanced barcode reading with intelligent tuning technology
  • DataMan 500 – 2011 
    The laser killer for logistics applications
  • Checker 4G – 2011
    Ethernet-enabled, high speed, high resolution sensors
  • DataMan 8000 – 2010
    The most advanced handheld reader with liquid lens and Ethernet
  • DataMan 200 – 2009
    First fixed-mount industrial ID reader to incorporate liquid lens technology
  • In-Sight Micro – 2008
    World's smallest, smartest, easiest vision system
  • DataMan 7500 – 2006
    First handheld reader for any mark on any surface with UltraLight
  • Checker 101 – 2004
    Breakthrough product for presence sensing
  • IDMax – 2004
    Pattern matching technology for 2-D Data Matrix codes
  • In-Sight 2000 – 2000
    First compact, full-capability machine vision sensor
  • PatMax – 1997
    First geometric pattern matching technology
  • Checkpoint – 1994
    First user-friendly, general purpose machine vision system
  • Cognex 3000 – 1988
    Included VC-1, the first machine vision chip
  • DataMan – 1982
    First industrial optical character recognition system

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