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Our experts also point to a number of applications that are gaining popularity in Asia, including flat panels, digital signage and semiconductors. For example, electronics and optics for lens components and assembly in China has seen "a quantum jump in the last 10 years," according to Jeremy Chang, Managing Director for China Operations, Edmund Optics (Shenzhen). In India, all the major machine vision manufacturers are represented selling their latest products, Soliton's Devaraj adds. "Korea is 98 percent semiconductor," says François Bertrand, VP Sales & Marketing, Matrox Imaging (Dorval, Quebec, Canada.) "Everything revolves around wafers, chips and printed circuit boards."

Your next chance to get a hands-on look at what's happening in Asia will be Machine Vision China 2009, scheduled March 24-26 at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. Last year's show attracted more than 5,000 visitors, who saw the technology provided by 112 exhibitors, just less than 60 percent of whom were based in mainland China. Other Asian exhibitors came from Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

For a look at even more of what's happening in Imaging in Asia, please enjoy this issue.