Economic downturn good for vision?

This economic downturn has been a nightmare for many industries, and rightly so. Housing, automotive, and financial institutions have had bigger than tolerable growth for years, and that couldn't go on forever. Eventually a bubble will pop, even if the government tries to slow down the pop.

Now, instead of ranting about how things could (and should) have been handled in a different manner leading up to now (hindsight's 20/20), I wanted to discuss why this might be a great time of growth for machine vision.

The cost for machine vision solutions are dropping as technology improves. The need for automation in many industries is increasing, and the number of tasks that can be automated increases daily. Combine these two facts with the state of the economy today, add a few engineering managers the right mindset, and it makes a great case for adding new optimizations.

The main reason people don't automate is the fact that they don't want to take a large hit on the books today, even though it will make the books look better from now on. If a company is expecting to take a loss in the coming quarters, why not take a bit more of a hit knowing that it will provide for long term cost savings? There are caveats here of course.... don't put yourself out of business trying to cut future costs, but if you can set your company up to take more advantage of the upturn when it happens now may be a good time to do so.

Just my $.02