Is Machine Vision Right for Your Business?

    Use this free machine vision feasibility assessment and ROI calculator to find out if automated inspection could work for your business. Answer 8–12 questions. Get an instant readiness and opportunity score with specific recommendations for your industry. Takes about 3 minutes. No email required.

    Is Machine Vision Right for Your Business?

    Answer 8–12 questions about your business. Find out if automated inspection or camera-based measurement could work for you.

    Takes about 3 minutes. No email required.

    How Much Does Machine Vision Cost and Is It Worth It?

    Pilot & Deployment Costs

    A typical machine vision pilot costs €15,000 to €25,000 and runs for 4 to 6 weeks. For eligible Irish businesses, Enterprise Ireland or LEO grant funding can cover up to 50% of project costs. Your net pilot cost could be €7,500 to €12,500. A full single-line production deployment typically costs €30,000 to €80,000 depending on the number of defect types, compliance requirements, and integration complexity.

    What Drives Cost Up and Down

    What drives cost up: multiple defect types requiring separate models, GAMP5 or 21 CFR Part 11 compliance requirements, integration with MES or ERP systems, and variable lighting environments that require hardware modifications. What keeps cost down: a well-defined single inspection task, consistent lighting, existing camera hardware, and clear pass/fail criteria.

    Return on Investment

    ROI depends on three things: how many items you inspect, what it costs when defects are missed, and how much manual inspection labour the system replaces. For a food manufacturer processing 200+ units per minute, a vision system that reduces false rejects by 40% typically pays for itself within 6 months.

    What Makes a Business Ready for Machine Vision?

    This assessment evaluates two things: readiness and opportunity. Readiness measures whether your business has the foundations to start a computer vision project: a clear inspection problem, the ability to define pass and fail, visual data to work with, a suitable environment, and a realistic timeline. Opportunity measures whether the investment is worth it: enough volume, a real cost when things go wrong, inefficiency in your current process, and compliance drivers that create urgency.

    These are the same factors we assess in every feasibility conversation. The tool gives you an honest answer before you pick up the phone.

    Who This Assessment Is For

    This assessment is designed for Irish SMEs and small manufacturers with 10 to 500 employees. It also works for drone operators, infrastructure companies, and construction firms of any size.

    Construction. If you manage sites, document progress, or deal with measurement disputes, and you want to know whether computer vision could replace tape measures and paper dockets.

    Manufacturing, food processing, or packaging. If you run a production line and inspect products manually or with cameras that underperform, and you want to know whether custom software could reduce false rejects and speed up batch release.

    Infrastructure or asset inspection. If you inspect physical assets using drones, cameras, or manual photography, and you want to know whether AI could process the imagery faster and more consistently.

    Can Machine Vision Work with Your Existing Cameras?

    Yes. Custom machine vision software works with Keyence, Cognex, Basler, Allied Vision, Teledyne FLIR, and any industrial camera with a standard interface (GigE Vision, USB3 Vision, Camera Link). You do not need to replace your cameras. The software layer sits on top of your existing hardware. If your hardware vendor recommended you speak to a custom software partner, that is because they build the hardware and you need someone to build the software.

    Read more about how custom software works alongside existing hardware.

    When Machine Vision Is Not the Right Fit

    An Honest Assessment

    Machine vision is not always the answer. If your inspection volume is very low (fewer than 50 units per day), if your products are so variable that no two look alike, if your team cannot agree on what a defect looks like, or if the problem is better solved upstream in the process, then computer vision will not deliver value. The assessment tool will tell you if any of these apply.

    What Causes False Rejects in Machine Vision?

    The three most common causes of false rejects (also called false positives) are:

    Lighting inconsistency
    Insufficient training data
    Classification thresholds set too tight

    Custom software reduces false rejects by compensating for lighting variation, learning from production data over time, and allowing defect-specific threshold tuning. If your current system rejects good product, the issue is almost certainly software, not hardware.

    Machine Vision Integrator vs Custom Software Partner

    An integrator handles camera selection, lighting, mounting, and station programming. A custom software partner builds the platform layer: MES and ERP integration, cross-line reporting, model retraining, audit trails, and data ownership. For a single standard inspection station, an integrator may be the right choice. For plant-wide software needs, multi-site reporting, or compliance-ready audit trails, that is a different job. These are complementary, not competing approaches.

    Learn more about Deep Purple's computer vision services.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    A typical machine vision pilot costs €15,000 to €25,000 and runs for 4 to 6 weeks. For eligible Irish businesses, Enterprise Ireland or LEO grant funding can cover up to 50% of project costs. Your net pilot cost could be €7,500 to €12,500. A full single-line production deployment typically costs €30,000 to €80,000 depending on the number of defect types, compliance requirements, and integration complexity. Deep Purple publishes real pricing because we believe buyers should know what things cost before they pick up the phone.
    This assessment helps you answer that question. The key factors are: whether you have a clear inspection or measurement problem, whether you can define what good and bad look like, whether you have enough volume to justify automation, and what it costs when things go wrong. If you score high on both readiness and opportunity, a pilot is worth exploring. If you score low, the tool tells you why and what to address first.
    Yes. Custom machine vision software works with any industrial camera that uses a standard interface: GigE Vision, USB3 Vision, or Camera Link. Keyence, Cognex, Basler, Allied Vision, and Teledyne FLIR are all supported. You do not need to replace your cameras. The software layer sits on top of your existing hardware.
    The three most common causes are lighting inconsistency, insufficient training data, and classification thresholds that are too tight. Custom software reduces false rejects by compensating for lighting variation, learning from your production data over time, and allowing defect-specific threshold tuning. If your current system rejects good product, the issue is almost certainly software, not hardware.
    Yes. Enterprise Ireland and Local Enterprise Office (LEO) grant programmes can cover up to 50% of eligible AI and computer vision project costs. A machine vision pilot at €25,000 could cost you as little as €12,500 after grant funding. See our complete guide to AI grants in Ireland for details on eligibility and how to apply.
    At minimum, you need photos or video of the thing you want to inspect, showing both good and defective examples. The more varied your dataset, the better the model performs. Fifty images will work for a demo. A production system needs hundreds or thousands of images showing the full range of real-world variation. This assessment helps you understand where your data readiness stands.
    An integrator handles camera selection, lighting, mounting, and station programming. A custom software partner builds the platform layer: MES and ERP integration, cross-line reporting, model retraining, audit trails, and data ownership. For a single standard inspection station, an integrator may be the right choice. For plant-wide software needs, multi-site reporting, or compliance-ready audit trails, that is a different job. These are complementary, not competing approaches.
    If you manufacture pharmaceuticals or medical devices in Ireland, your vision inspection system must be validated to specific standards. GAMP5 governs computerised systems. 21 CFR Part 11 governs electronic records. In practice, this means versioned models, complete audit trails, access controls, and documented change management. Custom software builds compliance into the architecture from day one. Most off-the-shelf machine vision software does not handle this compliance layer. If you need a validated machine vision system, custom software is usually the only way to meet these requirements fully.

    This assessment is based on Deep Purple's experience delivering computer vision and AI software for Irish businesses, and on published research into the factors that determine whether a vision project will succeed. The questions cover the areas we assess in every feasibility conversation: problem definition, data availability, environment, volume, compliance requirements, and timeline.

    Assessment methodology reviewed by Barry Gough, CTO, Deep Purple AI Consulting.

    Deep Purple AI Consulting offers a free machine vision feasibility assessment for Irish businesses in manufacturing, construction, and infrastructure inspection. The tool evaluates whether a business is ready for a computer vision pilot, estimates whether the ROI justifies the investment, and provides industry-specific recommendations covering inspection problems, false reject reduction, existing camera hardware (Keyence, Cognex, Basler), compliance requirements (GAMP5, 21 CFR Part 11), grant funding eligibility, and pilot costs (typically €15,000–€25,000, often 50% grant-funded).

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    Drone Inspection Software Ireland

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    AI Grants Ireland: Complete Guide

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