A case study of machine vision was conducted to identify and analyze the employment effects of high technology in general. (Machine vision is the automatic acquisition and analysis of an image to obtain desired information for use in controlling an industrial activity, such as the visual sensor system that gives eyes to a robot.) Machine vision as a new industry has taken off on an exponential rise. The total employment in the machine vision industry has been growing rapidly and will continue to increase. A large portion of the jobs have been taken by highly trained technical people. However, as the process becomes more standardized, blue-collar workers with additional training will be able to fill some of the jobs. The United States leads the world in the development of machine vision. It is expected that this industry may help lessen the number of imports coming into the United States and the amount of labor-intensive manufacturing leaving the country. The near-term prospects for the machine vision industry require the identification of markets with sufficient volume of applications and a process technology to produce the vision systems at a low enough cost to attract users and generate profits in the industry. (15 references) (KC)