Good Bye 2017 ! 

Again another year (almost) has passed by.  And then it is a good moment to take a look back of what happened in 2017.

In the beginning of the year Harvest Imaging announced a project in which the reproducibility, variability and reliability of CMOS imagers will be characterized.  The promise was to deliver a first report in the Summer 2017, but the actual amount of measurement work was a bit underestimated and it took a lot of time to perform all the characterization of the cameras.  New hardware and software had to be installed and as you probably know, these kind of things always take more time than expected.  But early September the first report was published and sent to the customers.  The first feedback of the people who acquired the reports was very encouraging.  More reports will follow in the summers of the coming 4 years.  In the meantime also a dedicated program is started to look for the reliability of the cameras when they are stored at 85oC and 85% relative humidity.

On the more scientific level we had the International Image Sensor Workshop 2017 in Hiroshima (Japan).  The meeting was again a highlight w.r.t. organization and information content.  In 4 days about 100 papers/posters were presented.  And I think that all participants went home with a happy face.  Not only a lot of high-quality information could be absorbed, but as usually it was great to meet our imaging peers from the academia and the industrial world.  During the IISS-Board meeting, the undersigned was elected as the president of the International Image Sensor Society for the coming 4 years.

The core business of Harvest Imaging is of course the training and courses conducted in the field of digital imaging.  And in 2017 two milestones were reached : course number 200 was organized in Delft.  And of all these courses, 100 of them were organized by CEI.  This “century” milestone was celebrated in Barcelona.  I would like to take the opportunity to thank again all participants who ever attended one or more of my trainings.  Without participants there would be no courses or trainings !!

Finally something about the yearly Harvest Imaging Forum : this year Christian Enz (EPFL) entertained us in the field of “Low Noise for Analog Devices and Circuits”.  Great speaker, and a subject that was, is and will remain a hot topic.  In all my consulting activities I never ever had a customer with the complain : “the noise of my sensor is too low”, it remains the challenge to make today’s noise lower than yesterday’s.

New in 2017 was the start of the Harvest Imaging Newsletter.  Communication to the outside world about the “products” of Harvest Imaging stays crucial.  Very often I do think that the imaging world knows what Harvest Imaging is doing and is not doing, but it happens regularly that people still come with questions about the activities of Harvest Imaging.  So it is a matter of informing and informing my customers again and again about what is when and where available.

So 2017 is almost completed, and then the question is : “What will bring 2018 ?”.  Well I think it will be more of the same.  Although there will be no IISW in 2018, the next one will take place in 2019 somewhere in the USA.  But the trainings/courses will continue (many in-house and open courses are already booked), consulting will continue as well as the work on the reproducibility, variability and reliability project.  Although, it is expected that in 2018 CEI will come with a new product based on my courses.  For sure, I will keep you informed once this new product comes on the market.  Stay tuned !!

Wishing all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  “See” you soon.

Albert, 12-12-2017.

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