AI, Food Safety & Vision Systems: Insights from 30 Years in Automation

Steve Kinney, thank you so much for talking with me today here at the Business Forum in lovely Orlando, Florida. You are the Director of Training, Compliance, and Technical Solutions at Smart Vision Lights and, most importantly, you're on the A3 Vision and Imaging Technology Strategy Board. So first of all, thank you for joining me today.

Thank you for having me.

You've been in this industry for quite some time. I did a little bit of digging on your LinkedIn and found out you didn't start last year like me. In your 30-plus years, as you look back—we're celebrating 50 years this year—what do you see as being special moments in history for vision in your own career?

For me personally, I came to this industry from doing other things—R&D in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was the latest technology and really interesting. I had some other job opportunities and looked at a company called Pulnix at the time, one of the camera companies, to get into this. I found it really interesting and I’m glad that I’ve remained.

In that time period, we started the first of the standards, which are now really important—the vision standards. I was chair of the Camera Link standard committee for over 20 years, from when we formed it in late ’99 to when it was formally adopted as the first standard in the AIA at that time in 2001. It became a really important standard and set the stage for GigE Vision, USB Vision to follow. EMVA came on with GenICam and EMVA 1288 testing, followed by CoaXPress and other standards. To see this organization and this group go from a trade organization to one setting the standards we use today to automate and do vision has been fantastic to watch.

Wow—what an incredible history you just nicely walked us through there on standards. I'm sure Carol was somewhere out there cheering for you—Carol and Bob.

Yes, Carol and Bob.

Tell me a little bit more about that. I went to my first standards event at IRSC this past fall and it was really cool to see how everyone in that room is passionate about safety and keeping everybody safe. Can you talk a little bit about your passion for that?

Absolutely. I've posted on my social media in the past from international standards meetings, which rotate through the three regions. I posted once with a picture during a Camera Link meeting. We had almost 50 people—over 40 in Japan. I wrote, "Most of you will never see these faces. No one's going to recognize us like Bill Gates or someone, but everyone here is setting the standards used to inspect and make your car safe, to process our food supply, to do all the things we do with automation." Everyone is dedicated, doing this so we all have a better environment where things work together. It’s tremendous. Standards work isn't always exciting, but the people involved are passionate or they wouldn’t be there.

It’s very clear that you are, too. It takes a lot of forethought to consider what could go wrong and design standards to counteract it. That takes so many people and so much time.

Yes, and that’s the other piece—especially with Camera Link, which was the first standard. There wasn’t really a template for us within AIA. We just had to carve a path. Vision engineers and camera engineers are creative people. You put three dozen of them in a room and everyone has a different idea about what should happen and how to make it work. It was an interesting process to get everyone aligned and move forward.

Now let’s talk about where we are today—looking forward. Everyone’s talking about AI. How is that intersecting with your work at Smart Vision Lights? Or are there other tech trends affecting you more?

AI is definitely one of the big topics—hot button, emerging tech. People want to label it good or bad, but I don’t see it like that. It’s the next tool. AI will be tremendous for certain inspections that are hard to do numerically. Take food inspection—something like grading a steak at the grocery store. That’s almost entirely done by human inspectors right now because it's hard to describe it numerically. It’s not just counting fat vs. red meat—it’s marbling, visual balance, even how it looks. AI gives us humanlike inspection capabilities for those nebulous qualities that are hard to quantify on paper.

Wow, I love that example. I remember a news story about the need for more food inspection. It would be amazing to use machines to support that. I once saw a stat that said 65–70% of the U.S. food supply is already inspected with a camera—not even counting barcode scanners, which are nearly universal now. That number is rising. From package integrity to safety—like preventing another Tylenol-style poisoning incident—machine vision is key to efficiency, safety, and controlling cost for everyone.

Let’s look ahead to Automate. You’re going to be there again. What are you looking forward to this year?

Automate is growing rapidly—it’s now the largest robotics trade show in North America. We’re thrilled to participate and see the growth. The pandemic made it clear we’re stressing our workforce, and automation is a key solution. There’s been a U.S. manufacturing renaissance, and robotics and vision are core to that. I’m also excited we’re offering Certified Vision Professional (CVP) courses again.

Automation isn’t just about replacing jobs—it creates new ones. A3 offers workforce training and opportunities. I encourage everyone to come, sit through the tracks, and get certified.

Let’s unpack that a bit more. Let’s say I work in the industry and want to expand my skill set—what happens when I come to Automate and attend?

The CVP training has two tracks. If you know nothing, start with the Basic track—covering cameras and sensors, software, machine building, optics. You get an end-to-end understanding of automation systems. You can attend for knowledge or pay extra to take the certification exam, which helps with job opportunities in the industry. Once you’ve got experience, go for the Advanced track—same categories, deeper content, and an advanced certification.

That’s awesome. I’m so glad we got to talk about that. Standards may not be sexy, as you said, but when you consider their daily impact, they’re critically important.

Absolutely. The end result speaks for itself.

Well, Steve, it’s been so much fun talking with you today. Thank you for being here—and I look forward to seeing you at Automate.

It’s been great. Thank you for having me.