UKIVA Technical Consultant

The UK Industrial Vision Association retains a technical expert in computer vision and machine vision to provide expert advice to the association and its members and to help promote machine vision within UK industry. Dr. John Haddon, Director of Panther Vision, was appointed to this position in spring 2011 and brings 30 years world class experience and knowledge in a diverse range of techniques and applications with particular expertise in computer vision algorithm development. Both the UKIVA and John want to ensure that this role evolves to give maximum possible benefit to the UKIVA and its members. We are seeking your views and would like you to complete the questionnaire below.

Technical Consultant Role

The UKIVA Technical Consultant provides the following services to the association:

  • Expert advice.
  • The planning and development of technical seminars and the review of submissions, for example, at Photonex 2011.
  • Editorial control of the UKIVA Newsletter.
  • Authoring and review of articles for the technical and trade press in support of the UKIVA’s continuing objective to raise and maintain awareness of the capabilities of machine vision and computer vision technology in UK industry.
  • First point of contact for external technical enquiries, directing them to member companies as appropriate. 
  • Contacts and links to other bodies, institutes and companies.

We encourage members to continue to send news and application stories to the UKIVA as these can provide the inspiration or examples for a variety of articles promoting the association. The more that the association and Technical Consultant knows about the membership, the more effective we can be in promoting you and vision to UK industry.

John Haddon and Panther Vision

John Haddon is the founding director of Panther Vision Ltd and has over 30 years experience in the development and implementation of image processing, computer vision and machine vision techniques and applications, and takes a keen interest in all things related to industrial vision. As an independent consultant and member of the executive board of the Vision and Imaging Network of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), he is ideally placed to take on this role.

John has been a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing, at the University of Surrey, and a visiting fellow at both the University of Surrey and the University of Exeter. He became a QinetiQ fellow in 1999 in recognition of ‘outstanding technical contributions in the field of image analyses’. He has been an active member of several international and inter-governmental research committees on behalf of the UK Government, has been a member of technical assessment teams for foreign governments and has worked with multinational businesses both in the UK and overseas. He has over technical 100 publications and reports, has contributed to several technical books and has been a reviewer for several learned journals.

John’s key expertise is in algorithm development, and particular for difficult imagery or computer vision tasks. Even if you can’t see it, there are computer vision techniques that can reveal it. Panther Vision is currently working for a range of clients in the UK and abroad and undertakes bespoke software development, technical assessment and general consultancy. Panther Vision clients range from small start-ups to multinational household names. Most projects are commercially sensitive but in the last year have included a technical review and world-wide market assessment of a patent for innovative sensor technology for new cameras; a technical assessment of a production line process for an international business in the US; and the development of real-time software to determine where a computer user is looking. Panther Vision is a member of the Microsoft BizSpark initiative and has been featured as an example of UK excellence.

Questionnaire about the UKIVA Technical Consultant
Optional Information
Name:
Company:
Position:
e-Mail:
Phone:

Is your company a member of the UKIVA?
Have you ever used the services of the UKIVA Technical Consultant, or has the Technical Consultant referred anybody to you?
If YES, please tell us about it:
What are the most important aspects of the UKIVA Technical Consultant role?
What would make the UKIVA Technical Consultant role more relevant to you, or to the UKIVA?
Would you like an informal discussion with the UKIVA Technical Consultant?
If YES, please tell us something about your problems/area to be discussed: