At the beginning of 2013, the machine vision industry was feeling good about its prospects for the coming year, even after experiencing a slowdown in the latter half of 2012 due in part to uncertainty over the presidential election in the U.S. and a cooling manufacturing environment. "Based on surveys of our members, we see an optimistic outlook about the economy and North American manufacturing, which indicates a likely return to growth in 2013," Jeff Burnstein, president of AIA, the industry's trade group, said in a news release posted in March. So, was this optimism warranted? To read the rest of the article click here.