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Mr. von Holdt, what is behind the 'Imaginghub'?

von Holdt: As the computer industry continues to progress, new opportunities are constantly arising for system developers. A key driver for this is the spread of ever more powerful embedded processing platforms, which are particularly attractive due to their small size and price. This enables companies to implement system designs that were unthinkable a few years ago. Single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi, for example, offer professional makers the technological prerequisites they need to implement their sometimes unconventional ideas.

With the momentum from the maker scene and the increasing digitalization of business models, the embedded computing trend is making its way into the development departments of large industrial companies and OEMs. As a result, the use of industrial systems on chip, systems on module or single board computers is growing steadily. The effects of this trend can also be felt in the vision industry. And suppliers of industrial cameras are consequently investing in the development of cost-effective, highly integrable board-level cameras under the catchword 'embedded vision', which enable a direct connection to processor architectures such as the 'Zynq-7000 SoC' family from Xilinx. Basler is one of these suppliers. On the one hand, this enables direct image data transfer, more flexibility in development and, above all, acceleration options for the application. On the other hand, however, it requires specialist knowledge far removed from common standards, increased integration costs and therefore a higher initial investment for system development.

This is precisely where the Imaginghub comes in: As an online community, the portal is aimed at developers, professional makers and technical decision-makers who are faced with the task of integrating a camera module with a suitable embedded processing platform into their system design. The platform supports the various phases of the design-in process with assistance from the community and also facilitates the exchange of ideas, experiences and finished solutions for embedded vision.

In addition, the Imaginghub enables community members to come together to implement specific projects and facilitates the search for suitable partners who can provide their expertise in the areas of software, hardware or system integration.

Sebastian von Holdt: "The 'Imaginghub' online portal sees itself as a central point of contact for the topic of embedded vision."

© Basler

What are the objectives?

von Holdt: Embedded vision is not only one of the latest buzzwords in the vision industry, but also a technology approach that is used across all sectors and markets. When implementing a system based on this approach, engineers often have to rely on lengthy exchanges with manufacturers, tedious internet research with average results or their own wealth of experience. The Imaginghub solves this dilemma and, focusing on the topic of embedded vision, brings together different questions, experience in finding solutions and concrete design approaches in one place. This saves developers an enormous amount of time in the conception phase of a system, which can have a positive impact on product development costs. This applies equally to companies that are migrating from a standard machine vision approach to an embedded vision approach and to those that already have experience with embedded technologies in product development.

In addition to community support, the portal aims to offer component and solution providers the opportunity to become actively involved in the embedded vision 'industry'. Through a network of solution seekers on the one hand and solution providers on the other, not only can a company's own understanding of the market be sharpened and customer requirements collected, but concrete business opportunities also arise for the participating companies. In addition, cross-industry cooperation is to be promoted through the networking of portal users and partners.

Who is the portal aimed at?

von Holdt: We are mainly targeting developers and technical decision-makers who have to or want to deal with the topic of embedded vision on a professional basis. These people do not necessarily come from the machine vision environment; embedded system developers in particular, who have perhaps never come into contact with the topic of image processing before, will find help with integrating a camera in the online portal. In addition to professional users, we address the target group of 'professional makers', i.e. all those who use their privately acquired expertise to create their first product, which they market through a start-up they have founded themselves, often in conjunction with crowd-funding campaigns.

How is the portal structured?

von Holdt: The Imaginghub is currently divided into three main areas: The first area is a classic forum where users can freely exchange ideas on a variety of topics.

The second area is the project rooms. Community users can create projects in the portal to work together on applications. The project rooms offer options for documenting the project, a connection to 'GitHub', a simple task list and other tools for organizing the project. Project members also have access to a private forum for internal communication. The project rooms also serve another purpose: they enable the documentation of hardware and software reference designs that other users can use to develop their own applications.

The partners in the partner area, the third large area of the portal, also benefit from this possibility. Here, community users can use keywords to search for suitable software, hardware or system integration partners. Partners, in turn, can summarize their expertise, products and solutions on their own profile pages. In addition to numerous regional integration partners and solution providers, corporations such as Advantech, Xilinx and Nvidia are also represented here.

What role does Basler play in this context?

von Holdt: Although the Imaginghub online community is sponsored by Basler, it also sees itself as independent and therefore bears the 'Powered by Basler' label. The companies listed in the partner area come from Basler's partner network, which is actively supported. Within this network, we present ourselves as a supplier of camera components in the hardware category.

Who can participate? What about direct competitors from the market?

von Holdt: The Imaginghub is an open community in which anyone can actively participate, as long as they do not violate the community guidelines. This also applies to other camera manufacturers and direct competitors. For example, it is only possible to join the Imaginghub partner network as a partner. Although this is also actively managed by Basler's partner managers, it was created specifically for the inclusion of companies with a greater thematic overlap with Basler's own products. With this status, companies benefit solely from the presentation in the online portal and the resulting interactions.