{"id":5197,"date":"2026-07-06T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.1stvision.com\/machine-vision-solutions\/?p=5197"},"modified":"2026-07-06T10:22:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:22:39","slug":"how-to-eliminate-glare-in-machine-vision-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.1stvision.com\/machine-vision-solutions\/2026\/07\/how-to-eliminate-glare-in-machine-vision-systems.html","title":{"rendered":"How to eliminate glare in machine vision systems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Machine vision – indeed human vision too – relies heavily on contrast<\/a>. The feature(s) being identified need to stand out against any competing candidate features. Otherwise confusion is present. Which means vision either doesn’t work, or isn’t efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it’s easy to achieve good contrast in certain machine vision applications, sometimes we’re presented with the special challenges of glare<\/a>. The target object is the same, in the two images below. If the goal is to read the alphanumeric information, which image would you rather pass to your machine vision software?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Courtesy:
Advanced Illumination<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Courtesy: Advanced Illumination<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Techniques to eliminate glare<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Glare can arise due to highly reflective surfaces, especially in combination with the direction of the light source relative to the lens and sensor capturing the image. Thankfully there are a number of techniques to eliminate or substantially reduce glare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Off-axis lighting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the 1-D bar code reading application illustrated below, moving the light to an off-axis position creates dark field orientation, eliminating the glare. Identical materials but different geometry does the trick!<\/p>\n\n\n

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a. Lighting diagram; b. High-angle light reflects from specular surface; c. Off-axis light improves the image; Courtesy Advanced Illumination<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Diverse lights and geometries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Consider another example. In this case we have a titration tray, with multiple wells. Each well has a laser-etched 2-D code.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Analysis\/discussion below. Courtesy Advanced Illumination<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n