Glossary

The following table defines terminology used throughout this help document:

Term	Definition
Active Cell	The cell that is currently highlighted in the spreadsheet. For more information, see Spreadsheet View or Active Cell.
Active In-Sight vision system	The In-Sight vision system whose job you are currently editing. This vision system can be said to have "focus" in the spreadsheet, usually indicated by the active cell.
Active Job	The job file currently loaded into memory on an In-Sight vision system.
Blobs	A group of dark or light-colored connected pixels, such as a splotch of white paint on a black background, or a black screw on a white conveyor belt. Also one of the fastest features to find, and allows for variations of the blob feature's shape and size, but has limited angular orientation value.
Cell Data File	Cell Data files (*.CXD) store spreadsheet cell data. The spreadsheet cell, or group of cells, is exported to a .CXD file which can be stored on one of the following: a central server via FTP, a local or remote In-Sight vision system or emulator, the RAMDisk folder of a local or remote In-Sight vision system or emulator or the Snippets folder on the local PC. The cell data can then be imported from any of the above locations to the spreadsheet. For more information, see RAM Disk Settings Dialog or Palette: Spreadsheet View. There are several methods for exporting and importing .CXD files. The .CXD file can be exported using the Export Cells dialog, the ExportData function or the Snippet dialog. The .CXD file can then be imported using the Import Cells dialog, the ImportData function, the Snippet dialog or dragging-and-dropping snippets from the Palette. For more information, see Import/Export Cells Dialog, ExportData, Snippet Dialog, or ImportData.
Character Instance (OCV/OCR)	A greyscale pattern used as an input to create an OCV/OCR model.
Character Model (OCV/OCR)	A composite character of a font, formed by taking into account all trained instances of that character.
Codes	1D barcodes and 2D data-matrix codes and symbols containing alphanumeric data strings.
Col (Column)	Defines the X direction of the In-Sight vision system pixel coordinate system.
EasyBuilder Tag	Provides information for the EasyBuilder View. For more information, see EasyBuilder Tags and Tag Labels.
EasyView Tag	A symbolic tag that is used to denote a cell that contains data to be used to create an EasyView, which is displayed from VisionView.
Edges	Areas of transition between light and dark pixels; in the horizontal or vertical directions, or circular or arced. Edges can be things like the ends of parts, pins on a circuit board, threads on a screw, the bottoms of bottles or the coils of a spring. These types of features are generally the fastest and easiest to detect.
Explorer Host Table	The Explorer Host Table allows In-Sight Explorer to communicate with In-Sight vision systems on different subnets. For more information, see Explorer Host Table Setup Dialog. Vision systems defined in this Host Table will appear within the In-Sight Network, as well as any dialogs (such as Save & Open, Snippet, Import/Export Cells, Backup, Restore, Clone, Update Firmware) that perform file operations on one or more In-Sight vision systems. For more information, see Save & Open Dialogs, Backup Dialog, Restore Dialog, or Clone Dialog. Note: If any vision systems in the In-Sight Host Table are configured to use DHCP, then the Host Table entries may become invalid if the vision system's IP address changes. Cognex strongly recommends configuring static IP addresses for all vision systems defined in the Host Table.
Feature (Feature of Interest)	In machine vision, features are referred to as the "objects of interest in the image," and vision inspections are designed around the types of features found in the image.
Firmware	Firmware is software code that runs within a physical In-Sight vision system. Vision systems can be updated to the latest firmware version by loading the appropriate firmware update file (*.UPD) from an In-Sight emulator. For more information, see Update Firmware Dialog.
Fixture	A fixture is an output of a Vision Tool that acts as a reference point for other Vision Tools, providing Row, Column and Angle coordinate values. When choosing a fixture, look at the part in the image and determine which type of feature is the most quickly and easily recognizable, and will be in every image of the part. Then, based on the type of feature, select an appropriate Vision Tool to define the feature. When a feature is used as a fixture during an inspection, the In-Sight vision system will first search for that feature; once the feature has been located, the feature's position serves as a reference point for the other Vision Tools to perform their inspections, based on the position of the fixtured featured. Note: A fixture is unnecessary if your part will be presented to the vision system in the same exact location, in every image. More than one fixture can be created and used in a job, and fixtures can be linked to each other.
HOSTS.NET	A virtual file that contains In-Sight Host Table entries for a vision system. HOSTS.NET is a system file and cannot be deleted. For more information, see Host Table Dialog.
Image (Image File)	Images acquired by In-Sight vision systems can be saved on your PC as .BMP or .JPG files. These files may then be loaded by any In-Sight vision system or emulator for use in job testing. In-Sight vision systems can store only one image (image.bmp); if you want to save a permanent copy of an image, you must save the image to a PC's hard disk. An image file may be opened using drag-and-drop from the In-Sight Network or from Microsoft Windows Explorer. For more information, see In-Sight Network.
IMAGE.BMP	A virtual file that contains the active image data being displayed on an In-Sight vision system. Identical to IMAGE.JPG. Note that IMAGE.BMP is a system file and cannot be deleted.
IMAGE.JPG	A virtual file that contains the active image data being displayed on an In-Sight vision system. Identical to IMAGE.BMP. Note that IMAGE.JPG is a system file and cannot be deleted.
In-Sight Emulator (Emulator) (In-Sight Offline Emulator)	The In-Sight emulator is offline programming software that can mimic various types of In-Sight vision systems, depending on which Emulation Mode is selected in the Emulation Panel. Emulators can be accessed just like In-Sight vision systems from the In-Sight Network. For more information, see Emulation Panel.
In-Sight Host Table	The In-Sight Host Table defines static IP addresses for remote hosts. This is required when In-Sight vision systems need to communicate with one another across different subnets. In-Sight vision systems use their host tables for communication in functions such as TCPDevice, WriteImageFTP, and WriteSMTP. For more information, see Internet Protocol (IP) Address, TCPDevice, WriteImageFTP, or WriteSMTP. Note: If any vision systems in the In-Sight Host Table are configured to use DHCP, then the Host Table entries may become invalid if the vision system's IP address changes. Cognex strongly recommends configuring static IP addresses for all vision systems defined in the Host Table.
In-Sight Vision System (In-Sight Sensor) (In-Sight Vision Sensor)	An In-Sight vision system consists of a digital greyscale or color camera to acquire images and a CCD chip to digitize them; a PC processor to run the programmed image analysis; and Input/Output hardware and communication links to report results and send/receive messages from other devices, such as robots or PLCs. For a complete list of Cognex vision system products, see: cognex.com/products.
Job (Job File)	A job file (*.JOB) is configured to perform a specific set of machine vision tasks. On In-Sight vision systems, job file storage is limited to the amount of available flash memory. File storage on an In-Sight emulator (running on a PC) is based upon the size of the hard disk in the PC. Job files can be loaded onto In-Sight vision systems from an In-Sight FTP server as well as from non In-Sight FTP servers. The name of the active job file is displayed in the title bar if it has been saved at least once. A job file can also be opened using drag-and-drop from the In-Sight Files pane or from Microsoft Windows Explorer. For more information, see Status Bar or In-Sight Files.
OCR	Optical Character Recognition; the process of reading unknown characters and pattern-matching the results against character models to "read" characters and pass them along as a string. For more information, see OCV/OCR Overview.
OCV	Optical Character Verification; the process of reading known characters and pattern-matching the results against character models to "verify" that an expected string was present.
Offline Programming Key	If In-Sight Explorer does not detect any In-Sight vision systems on your network, then you will be required to enter an Offline Programming Key into the Options dialog in order to configure In-Sight jobs locally in the In-Sight offline emulator environment. For more information, see Emulation Panel. Note: If you have purchased Offline programming licenses for any version of PC Host, then these licenses will work as valid Offline Programming Keys for In-Sight Explorer. If an Offline Programming Key has not been entered, you may see Error 6001 or Error 6047 when launching In-Sight Explorer. For more information, see Error Messages.
OPC Tag	A symbolic tag that is used to denote a cell that contains data that should be communicated over the OPC channel.
Patterns	A pattern can be anything from a simple group of repeating shapes to complex configurations, like logos or labels. The most reliable type of feature, patterns allow for the greatest range of positional rotation, movement and scale variations, but generally they also require the most amount of time to inspect.
PC Host	The In-Sight PC Host is legacy programming software for In-Sight vision systems. In-Sight Explorer incorporates PC Host's capabilities as the emulator, which allows for offline programming and testing of In-Sight jobs.
PROC.SET	Vision system settings are stored in the proc.set file. This file contains configuration details for serial ports, discrete input/output, the user list, startup parameters (user & job), and date/time settings. Note: proc.set is a system file and cannot be deleted.
ROI	Region of Interest; defines the area of the image that will be inspected.
Row	Defines the Y direction of the In-Sight vision system pixel coordinate system. Example
Symbolic Tag	Used to denote a cell that contains data to be used by the EasyBuilder View and communicated to other devices, such as Location or Inspection Tool results, job data and parameter controls (for example, “Blobs_1.Pass_Count”). Also used to denote cells containing data that can either be transmitted over the OPC channel to the In-Sight OPC Server, to generate audit messages to an audit message server, or used to create an EasyView, which allows you to customize how data is displayed on a Cognex VisionView device and determine if the data is editable by the operator. For more information, see Audit Message Settings Dialog or EasyView Settings Dialog.
Text	Alphanumeric (ABC, 123, etc.) text strings.
VisionView Application	The Cognex VisionView^® application software can be deployed on the VisionView Operator Interface Panel, the VisionView VGA, a PC or a Windows CE-based HMI panel. The VisionView application software can be used to connect to multiple vision systems and display the vision systems' acquired image and critical pass/fail data to the operator on the factory floor.