Equipment is now available for factory use to automate visual recognition, memorization, orientation, and inspection. Standard units scan a field of view in a thousandth of a second, extracting digitally‐coded signals which are uniquely related to the observed field. These signals are further processed digitally on a realtime basis to automate visual functions. This equipment makes possible automation of visually controllable production operations at speeds, accuracies, and cost effectiveness which exceed human capacities by orders of magnitude.