photonicSENS has won the VISION Award 2026 for its work on plenoptic (light field) imaging. The €3,000 prize, sponsored by Imaging and Machine Vision Europe, was handed over at a special reception during the VISION exhibition in Stuttgart today (7 October, 2026).
Although plenoptic imaging has been understood in theory for more than a century, the jury awarded the biennial prize to photonicSENS for its work in turning the theory into a manufacturable industrial technology.
The company’s apiCAM platform captures a full 2D image and a calibrated, per-pixel 3D depth map simultaneously, from a single sensor, in a single shot, with no projector, no scan axis and no on-site calibration.
A micro-lens array between lens and sensor then captures multiple angular perspectives in one frame and a proprietary algorithm extracts genuine, measured depth in real time, including on specular metallic surfaces and transparent substrates that challenge structured light, laser triangulation, and stereo vision.
During a presentation of the technology before the award announcement, Sergio Mantecón, the Chief Commercial Officer of photonicSENS, said: “We can capture 3D in a single shot… we avoid occlusions and we are fast. There’s no post-processing, it’s all done in the camera.
“Our core markets are semiconductor, semiconductor packaging. So inspection of wire bonds, chip on board inspection… anything where there’s a need for short working distance, but also high resolution – where there may be reflections or metal surfaces. That’s where we shine.”
Manufactured at industrial scale using a proprietary automated alignment process in photonicSENS’ own cleanroom in Valencia, Spain, the portfolio now spans over 50 off-the-shelf camera designs, with depth precision reaching under 0.5 µm at the high end and up to the millimetre range at the other.
Warren Clark, the CEO of Imaging and Machine Vision Europe, highlighted the growth in the stature of the award over the past two decades: “We have sponsored the VISION Award proudly for the past 20 years. It has grown in importance and participation over that time. This year, we had 75 individual entries from 67 countries. Our jury had to work extremely hard to whittle down our 75 entries to a shortlist of five.”
Each of the five shortlisted entries also had the opportunity to present their work on stage during the ceremony. In addition to photonicSENS were:
- Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), for PHOTODEX
- Lidwave, for Odem
- Medabsy, for virtualised machine vision
- Singular Photonics, for Litavis
Presenting the trophy to Jorge Blasco, the CEO and founder of photonicSENS, Martin Wany, the spokesman for this year’s VISION Award jury, said: “The VISION Award aspires to highlight innovation. We try to find relevant innovations at an early stage, but somewhere in a form that it can actually be used.
“This year’s winning technology was first mentioned in 1908, so it’s been around for over 100 years already. But the winning team has managed to bring this in a form that is compliant to our industry within a price range that is compliant, so it can be used for automation.”
Come see the Imaging and Machine Vision Europe team at VISION 2026: Hall 8, Booth D90.
