Halcon Brochure en
Halcon Brochure en
Halcon Brochure en
EN
THE COMPREHENSIVE
MACHINE VISION
SOFTWARE FOR ALL
INDUSTRIES
What is HALCON?
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What Is Included?
Why HALCON?
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the power of machine vision
Professional Software
for all Machine Vision Applications
AGRICULTURE & FOOD AUTOMOTIVE & ROBOTICS LOGISTICS & PACKAGING ELECTRONICS &
Identification of natural prod- Determine the 3D pose of Quality control, completeness SEMICONDUCTORS
ucts, automated fruit picking objects, extract 3D data for bin inspection, identification, or Precise assembly, surface
and sorting, or fill level mea- picking or robot path planning: bar & data code reading: inspection or defect detection
surement: HALCON is a HALCON's unique 3D vision HALCON offers outstanding during the entire manufactur-
machine vision software for techniques open new possibili- methods in all areas of logistics ing process: With HALCON,
producers and packagers alike ties for numerous automotive and packaging. system manufacturers are fully
to achieve efficient and consis- and robotics applications. equipped to implement
tent production and keep up advanced processes at
with the ever-changing reduced costs.
demands of consumers.
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BOARD, WAFER & DIE INSPECTION
PCB, BGA, AOI/AXI, ball-wedge and wire bond-
ing machines: HALCON recognizes defects with
an accuracy better than 1μm.
COMPLETENESS INSPECTION
Insufficient soldering paste, missing diodes, rotated
components: HALCON detects all incomplete or
incorrectly positioned parts within milliseconds.
SURFACE INSPECTION
Various materials, even partially specular reflecting
surfaces, as well as different error classes like
holes, wrinkles, edge cracks, inclusions, contami-
nants, coating voids, scratches, spots, and dents:
HALCON's advanced filtering techniques are
tailored to diverse needs.
PRINT INSPECTION
Labels and forms printed on paper, plastic, or
metal by any kind of printer: HALCON automati-
cally compares trained patterns with your prints.
IDENTIFICATION
Identification, reading of bar and data codes as
well as OCR (Optical Character Recognition):
HALCON robustly reads a single character in less
than 0.1 ms, even regardless of its orientation and
font type. The ability to group characters automati-
cally allows the identification of whole words.
CLASSIFICATION
Quality control, image segmentation, object recog-
nition, or anomaly detection: HALCON offers vari-
ous deep learning methods to assign an object to
one of several categories based on selected
features.
MEASURING
HALCON's superior edge detection and contour
analysis techniques, in combination with powerful
3D camera calibration, extends measurement
accuracy to the entire field of view.
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the power of machine vision
Leading-Edge Techniques
and Optimal Performance
BLOB ANALYSIS
Hysteresis, local, binary, and standard thresholding, plus more than 20 addi-
tional segmentation operators; area, orientation, and 50 more shape and
gray value features: HALCON performs blob analysis within milliseconds.
Processing of partially Extract blobs with subpixel
overlapping blobs. accuracy.
MORPHOLOGY
Erosion, dilation, opening, and closing with arbitrary structuring elements:
HALCON excels with the fastest and most comprehensive implementation of
morphological algorithms.
Distinguish touching objects. Detect contour defects.
3D VISION
3D CALIBRATION
Calibrate internal and external camera parameters to perform highly accu-
rate metric measurements, e.g., up to 1 μm in a field of view of 10 mm – also Distances on the caliper can Hand-eye calibration
with line scan and telecentric tilt cameras. Use HALCON's hand-eye calibra- be measured in the presence enables robotic grasping
of perspective distortions. applications.
tion for vision-guided robot applications, like pick-and-place.
3D OBJECT PROCESSING
With HALCON's 3D object model various tasks can be performed, such as
3D registration, 3D object processing, as well as 3D object recognition and
surface comparison. Errors are detected using A 3D object model is
3D surface inspection. segmented into connected
components.
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DEEP LEARNING
HALCON comes with various pretrained Convolutional Neural Networks
(CNNs), that have been highly optimized for industrial applications. Due to the
high flexibility in terms of hardware, training as well as inference is possible
on GPUs as well as CPUs. HALCON enables the classification of whole imag-
es, detects objects within images with bounding box accuracy, or performs Anomaly Detection Bounding box object
pixel-precise semantic segmentation. Additionally, it detects unknown anoma- detection with deep learning.
lies based on only few good samples, or trains an application to extract appli-
cation-specific edges. Its seamless integration into the HALCON library makes
this technology a valuable addition to the most comprehensive toolset on the
vision market. For more information see www.halcon.com/deep-learning
MATCHING
HALCON's superior subpixel-accurate matching technologies find objects robust-
ly and accurately in real-time. Images with 8 or 16 bits, as well as color or multi-
channel images, can be processed regardless of rotation, tilt, local deformation,
texture, scale, partial occlusion, or nonlinear illumination changes. Objects can
be trained from images or from CAD-like data. Moreover, HALCON includes nu- HALCON's advanced HALCON's local deformable
merous variations of this technology, e.g., to locate objects that are composed of matching technology even matching finds objects with
finds objects which are surface deformations.
multiple parts that can move with respect to each other, or methods that are very partially occluded.
fast or particularly robust against defocus, texture, or surface deformations.
3D MATCHING
SHAPE-BASED 3D MATCHING
Recognition and 3D pose determination of arbitrary 3D objects: HALCON's
cutting-edge 3D matching determines the position and orientation of 3D ob-
jects represented by their CAD model.
Localization of a known Surface-based 3D matching
SURFACE-BASED 3D MATCHING object with 3D matching. with multi-view stereo.
HALCON's surface-based 3D matching is optimized to find objects with arbi-
trarily shaped or even deformed surfaces by combining 3D point cloud data
and edge information from distance images.
MEASURING
1D MEASURING
Measure edges along lines or arc segments: HALCON's powerful algorithms
perform subpixel-accurate measurements in less than a millisecond. In combi-
nation with gray-value calibration even non-linear gray-value responses can
be compensated to achieve highest accuracy. Inspect the distances between the blades of a fan.
2D MEASURING
Fitting an ellipse to a subpixel contour output of an edge filter allows you to
achieve highest precision. HALCON's metrology model automatically extracts
contour data from images with more than one channel, e.g., from color images.
3D MEASURING
Measurement of geometric shapes, e.g., circle diameter
HALCON's outstanding algorithms reconstruct the disparity, distance images,
or 3D coordinates of surfaces with many different methods: binocular, multi-
view, and photometric stereo, sheet of light, and depth from focus. The 3D
pose of circles and rectangles can also easily be determined with only one
camera. The segmentation and fitting of 3D primitives allows accurate mea-
surement of, e.g., cylinders, spheres, and planes.
Measurement of height differences on boards
Protection of Investment
Compatibility is an important factor for the protection of investment.
To ensure this, HALCON supports a great amount of image acquisition
devices as well as a large variety of operating systems and programming
languages. MVTec naturally provides maintenance and availability of a
version for years, also after purchase.
Comprehensive Documentation
HALCON offers documentation for every user and level. Numerous exam-
ple programs for every application area, which can be found with an easy-
to-use browser, serve as starting point for own applications.
Solution Guide
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Reliability
HALCON is proven worldwide in
hundreds of thousands of installations.
The sophisticated algorithms are
developed by MVTec's engineers, who
have more than 30 years of experience
in machine vision. HALCON Editions
Progress Steady
Speed
Receive new HALCON features as Receive new HALCON features
HALCON is implemented for highest
soon as they are ready for the market with the next major version
performance, e.g., by actively exploiting
multi-core platforms and special instruc- New version ~ every 6 months New release ~ every 2 years
tions sets like AVX2 and NEON, as well Subscription based (automatic yearly Regular purchase
as GPU acceleration. renewal, access to all features (one time payment)
released within subscription period) Lifelong free support
Support during subscription period Regular maintenance updates
Automatic Operator Maintenance through regular Deep Learning module can be
new releases
Parallelization (AOP) purchased additionally
Deep Learning module is included
Multi-core and multi-processor comput-
ers help vision systems to increase their For more information see www.halcon.com/editions
speed considerably. HALCON offers
an industry-proven automatic operator
parallelization that actively supports this
speed enhancement. Operators are auto-
matically parallelized when started on a
multi-core computer by distributing data,
such as images, to multiple threads, one
for each core.
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the power of machine vision
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HALCON is for developers who want
the power of rapid prototyping
support of a large variety of operating systems
flexibility in programming languages
to protect their code
to develop also on non-standard platforms
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the power of machine vision
HDevelop Integrated
Development Environment (IDE)
HDevelop is HALCON's highly interactive programming environment. Running on Windows, Linux, and macOS, it en-
ables you to develop image processing solutions fast and efficiently. This can be done even while acquiring images from
an image acquisition device. There is a multitude of graphical tools for data and image inspection. The HDevelop GUI is
available in various languages and has an optimized usability.
Example Programs
The dialog "Browse HDevelop Example Programs" lets you select examples via topics
and categories. No matter in which industry you are engaged, you will find appropriate
examples out of more than 1,000 with three mouse clicks.
Parallel Programming
The benefits of multi-core architectures can easily be exploited: HDevelop supports
concurrency through parallel programming, even during export to C, C++, and .NET
languages like C# or VB.NET.
Code Sharing
Feature Inspection
HDevelop enables easy code sharing between developers: code can be organized into
procedures, which can also be stored as password-protected external procedures and
organized in procedure libraries.
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Immediate Execution Feedback
Get immediate feedback on the execution of an operator and let HDevelop visualize
iconic variables, e. g., as 3D plots or contour lines. The HDevelop profiler tool helps
analyzing each operator's execution time.
Gray Histogram
HDevelop
Line Profile
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the power of machine vision
Measure Assistant
The HDevelop measure assistant is a front-end to HALCON's 1D measuring. It finds
edges and measures distances between edges along a preselected line or circular arc
in an image. On demand, the assistant inserts the corresponding code into the program.
Matching Assistant
The matching assistant is a powerful tool specifically designed for the interactive use of
HALCON's shape-based matching, correlation-based matching, descriptor-based Camera calibration assistant - Visualization
matching, and deformable matching. It assists in finding parameter settings for object
recognition, as well as matching applications, and inserts the suitable code into the pro-
gram on demand.
OCR Assistant
The HDevelop OCR assistant allows interactive use of HALCON's traditional OCR clas-
sification. It helps to determine parameter settings, train custom OCR fonts, verify those,
and inserts the corresponding code into the program on demand.
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Programming with HALCON
HALCON offers various interfaces to access all of its more than 2,100 powerful operators from programming languages
like C, C++, Python, and .NET languages like C# or VB.NET. HALCON's open architecture allows you to access defined
data structures and thus to integrate HALCON with further software components such as a user interface or process
control. HALCON also supports parallel programming, e. g., multithreaded programs. Thus, multiple threads can call
HALCON operators simultaneously. All this, together with HALCON's inbuilt high-performance memory management, lets
you concentrate on your application development and quickly come to a solution.
HDevEngine
HDevEngine – the "HDevelop Engine" – is a library that acts as an interpreter and lets
you directly load and execute HDevelop programs and procedures from within your
C++, C#, or Visual Basic application. The HDevEngine library export makes calling
HDevelop procedures from C++ as easy and intuitive as calling any other C++ function.
This allows you to change the vision part of your application without the need of
re-compiling it.
HALCON/.NET
In HALCON/.NET all HALCON operators and data structures are available as high-level
classes, greatly simplifying the development of your application. HALCON/.NET can be
used in .NET languages like C#, Visual Basic .NET, and C++ within .NET Standard or
.NET Core framework. It also can be used on Windows and with Mono also on Linux.
HALCON/C++
With HALCON/C++ you can access the whole functionality of HALCON based on a
C++ class hierarchy. This enables you to develop programs that are very compact and
easy to maintain. HALCON/C++ is available on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Powerful Debugging
HALCON supports debugging efforts of software developers tremendously. Using
HALCON's extension for Visual Studio, C++, and C#/.NET developers can inspect
HALCON variables (tuples and iconic) directly within Visual Studio. When executing
HDevelop procedures inside a C# or C++ application via HDevEngine, the machine
vision part of the application can be debugged directly within HDevelop – even
remotely – by connecting it with HDevEngine.
Powerful Debugging
Protection of Know-how
HALCON secures the know-how of the software developer: code, which is saved in ex-
ternal or local procedures, as well as code of entire procedure libraries or programs
can be secured with a password. Therefore, functionality can be shared without reveal-
ing the program code.
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the power of machine vision
HALCON Architecture
The flexible architecture of HALCON ensures its compatibility with future developments, for example,
the portability to other operating systems or the integration into new programming environments.
This protects your investment in your applications.
Operating Systems
HALCON is available for standard PCs running Windows (64-bit), Linux (64-bit), and macOS.
Extension Packages
This unique feature allows you to integrate your existing or newly developed image processing
algorithms into HALCON. This gives you a common view on all image processing parts of your
application and facilitates maintenance and future development. An open, extensively documented
interface enables you to utilize the powerful internal data structures of HALCON.
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Embedded Vision with HALCON
MVTec HALCON runs perfectly on embedded devices and thus
enables innovative and high-performing embedded vision products,
available on the market as bundles or standard software products.
By default, HALCON is ready to be used on 32- and 64-bit
Arm® -based platforms without further porting.
HALCON makes use of special acceleration technologies such as
automatic operator parallelization, GPU acceleration, or the "NEON"
instruction set extension, which can bring an enormous increase in
performance on embedded platforms.
To optimize implementation, HALCON also supports all relevant
interfaces, such as GigE Vision and Video4Linux for image acquisition
or the OPC UA interface for communication with a PLC.
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The Company behind
HALCON
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MVTec Offers MVTec Is Part of a
Various Services Global Network
MVTec offers a wide range of services in MVTec products are sold and supported exclusively by qualified and
machine vision for companies with differ- trained partners all over the world. Each partner in our big network has
ent needs. Our aim is to enable customers the resources, experience, and training to address your technical and com-
to use MVTec software so that they can de- mercial software needs.
ploy successful machine vision projects.
Our services team draws from decades of MVTEC IMAGE ACQUISITION PARTNER PROGRAM
experience in application development In order to provide the best possible integration of hardware and software for
and therefore develops comprehensive and customers, MVTec cultivates close partnerships to a large number of suppliers
cost-effective software solutions based on of image acquisition devices.
MVTec's products HALCON and MERLIC.
MVTEC CERTIFIED INTEGRATION PARTNER PROGRAM
Free Application Evaluation MVTec selects qualified engineering companies, who realize their imple-
Feasibility Studies mentations with MVTec's software products.
Customer Specific Projects
Trainings & Workshops MVTEC CERTIFIED TRAINING PARTNER PROGRAM
Porting for HALCON MVTec strives to ensure highly qualified support and the best training for its
products. For this, the company runs the MVTec Certified Training Partner
Program for its sales partners. Members of this program are trained to give
specific courses for its products to customers.
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the power of machine vision
Try HALCON
FOR FREE!
Download HALCON and contact a
sales partner for a free evaluation
license or use our free application
evaluation service.
www.halcon.com/now
© 1996-2022 MVTec Software GmbH. All rights reserved. All specifications are subject to change without notice. HALCON is a registered trademark of MVTec Software GmbH. 11/2022
HALCON Sales Partners
MVTec has a dense, worldwide sales
partner network. This enables us to offer
qualified partners in all regions.