Spencer Luster, President
LIGHT WORKS, LLC

Professional Qualifications

Mr. Luster has twenty-two years' experience in the physics of optical imaging and lighting design for machine vision and sensor systems, as well as opto-mechanical design for the industry. His special expertise includes:

• General contrast enhancement techniques
• Telecentric imaging and lighting systems design
• Polarization synthesis and analysis
• IR and near IR imaging and thermography
• Spectral analysis and synthesis
• Sensor design and modification for special purposes
• Mechanical design and analysis
• Physical measurements and gauging

Experience

• From 1985 to 1996 Mr. Luster was employed by Automatic Inspection Devices, Inc. (now Integral Vision) first as a technician, then engineer, and finally as manager of their five-member optics team. During this time he was responsible for the majority of AID’s optical designs, including those of their most capable and lucrative machine vision systems. Several of these used forms of the telecentric systems described in Mr. Luster’s paper on the subject for which he received the Best Written Presentation Award at the MVA/SME sponsored Applied Machine Vision `98 conference. As a leader of AID’s engineering group, he was also responsible for writing portions of system user manuals, as well as direct training of customers.
  
  
• In 1996 he took the position of Senior Optical Engineer at the Edison Industrial Systems Center (EISC), a non-profit organization dedicated in part to bringing cost effective machine vision solutions to small and medium sized manufacturers. His experience continued in the design of inspection systems for automotive and particularly the glass industries. Additionally, he gained experience and developed techniques in the use of IR imaging and thermography for a NIST-ATP project concerning die casting process improvement.
  
  
• In 1999 Mr. Luster began full-time operations of Light Works, the mission of which includes putting creative optical devices into the hands of machine vision OEMs and systems integrators.
  

Education

• University of Toledo, Bachelor of Science in Physics, Magna Cum Laude

Affiliations

• MVA/SME -- Machine Vision Association of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
• MVA/SME – Elected to the Board of Advisors for 1999
• MVA/SME – Elected Chairman of the Board of Advisors for 2000
• SPIE -- The International Society for Optical Engineering.
• Sigma Pi Sigma – National Physics Honor Society

Patents

• “Method and system for measuring Kerr rotation of magneto-optical medium” U.S. Patent #5694384.
• “Method and system for detecting defects in optically transmissive coatings formed on optical media substrates.” U.S. Patent #5715051
• “Optical image field splitting system” U.S. Patent #5975710
• “Telecentric Lens” U.S. Patent #6324016 B1
• “Linear Optical Scanner” (patent pending)

Awards

• Best Written Presentation Award for the paper titled, Telecentric Imaging: A Camera Lens, A Doublet and Thou. Awarded by MVA/SME at the national conference Applied Machine Vision `98.

Teaching

• 1992 to 1996 -- Annual guest lecturer on optical design for the University of Toledo Electrical Engineering department class 479/579 “Machine Vision Systems.”
  
  
• Lead lecturer for MVA Sponsored courses on “Fundamentals of Machine Vision” in 1999 and 2000.

• 2007 -- Owens Community College Adjunct Professor. Industrial Physics: Heat Light and Sound.