MVTec Software – Germany – Machine vision

A Vision of Perfection: State-of-the-Art CodeMeter Protection for MVTec’s Top-Line Technology

The Challenge

As a leading international manufacturer of software for machine vision used in all demanding areas of imaging, MVTec Software GmbH has been serving the world at one of the key nexuses of the new industrial age: the place where the physical and the digital meet. Its comprehensive standard software for machine vision, HALCON, has been complemented by MERLIC, an all-in-one software product for quickly building machine vision applications without programming. To equip its product portfolio with equally sophisticated licensing and protection capabilities, MVTec needed a solution provider that was as versatile as the users and applications of its own technology.

The Solution

MVTec chose to collaborate with Wibu-Systems in order to extend the already applied licensing opportunities in an evolutionary way. With MERLIC already fully CodeMeter-protected and licensed from its initial launch, HALCON migrated to the CodeMeter system with a minimal impact on existing customers. The initial migration also opened up new opportunities to MVTec, e.g. for the new MVTec on Campus program.

The Success

CodeMeter is designed with flexibility in mind, supporting a comprehensive range of architectures, operating systems, and industrial environments. For MVTec, this means a licensing system that fits perfectly with the many possible applications and use cases of its machine vision software, and the ease of having all its licensing and monetization operations in one central, cloud-facilitated, and effectively and easily managed place.

Christoph Zierl
Technical Director, MVTec
CodeMeter enabled us to respond to the many and complex needs of our users. MERLIC and HALCON are used in various shapes and forms, and so far, CodeMeter has mastered all requirements and challenges we have thrown at it. Choosing CodeMeter means choosing a mature ecosystem for protecting our company’s intellectual property. With Wibu-Systems, we found a partner who meets us on eye-level and offers us everything in one single technology, from our dongles to license management in the cloud.

About MVTec Software GmbH

MVTec is a leading manufacturer of standard software for machine vision. MVTec products are used in all demanding areas of imaging: Semi-conductor industry, web inspection, quality control and inspection applications in general, medicine, 3D vision, and surveillance. 

From Factories to Universities: Cutting-Edge Image Processing Technology Protected by CodeMeter

Industrial image processing and machine vision have become ubiquitous features of the modern industrial world. From scanning tomato seedlings or coffee pods to reading handwritten labels on mail and packages, the uses of machine vision are many: PCB, semiconductor, or processor testing, robot positioning and alignment, surface monitoring, quality assurance, print quality checks, ID screening – the list goes on.

HALCON by MVTec masters all these challenges with panache. HALCON is typically integrated as a special library in the frontline applications and it also includes HDevelop – an integrated development environment (IDE) that facilitates the fast and efficient advancement of image processing solutions. What HALCON users need is full support for the vast range of image acquisition hardware, operating systems, and programming languages that are being used in the industrial world. The solution they are looking for is versatile, fully supported, and designed with the long lifespans of industrial equipment in mind. Someone looking for a solution to quickly build machine vision applications without any need for programming can also choose MVTec MERLIC, an all-in-one software product that provides powerful tools to design and build complete machine vision applications with a graphical user interface, integrated PLC communication, and image acquisition based on industry standards.

The requirements of HALCON and MERLIC perfectly match what CodeMeter, Wibu-Systems’ software protection and licensing solution, brings to the table. With comprehensive support for a wide range of operating systems and a commitment to long-term availability and compatibility, CodeMeter was the natural choice for MVTec when looking for a uniform solution that could cover the entire HALCON and MERLIC product range, with the capabilities required to protect the software and to distribute and manage licenses in their markets.

MERLIC has been secured by CodeMeter from the get-go: Ever since the first release, customized and branded CmDongles and software CmActLicenses are used to protect the considerable intellectual asset invested into MVTec’s technology. The end users get their licenses for MERLIC via CodeMeter License Central and WebDepot, either placed in a physical CmDongle or activated in a CmActLicense.

MVTec was already accustomed to using a mixed hardware-software licensing solution for HALCON, which combined software licenses with a dongle as a proof of identity. The company decided to adapt this approach: Since the release of HALCON 13 in 2016, MVTec has been delivering new CmDongles customized with the special HALCON brand design and preprogrammed for protection. The HALCON dongles were also given a unique ID and a special mini-certificate to verify that ID.
 
With this switch, MVTec also had an opportunity to introduce user-friendly access to educational licenses. Batches of these licenses can be acquired by educational institutions and managed by designated administrators. These can include lecturers who assign these licenses to their students, who in turn activate them over the Internet. This streamlined process keeps MVTec in full control, while making the creation and distribution of time-limited student licenses far easier. 

All of this is made possible by the dedicated Educational Portal of Wibu-Systems, which is formed by not one, but three portals: One for MVTec’s management of participating educational institutions and educators; one for the designated administrators to coordinate their student licenses; and a third portal for students to activate their licenses – putting cutting-edge technology in the hands of their future users without compromising security.