In 2002, Dr. Joseph Sgro launched FastVision, LLC. FastVision builds high-speed megapixel-plus digital cameras, based on CMOS imagers. The company's goal is to produce smart cameras, cameras with high-speed scalable integrated processing capabilities built into the same package housing the optoelectronics. Like most smart camera vendors, FastVision’s suite includes integrated FPGA processing and memory subsystems to enable in-camera image processing. When integrated with a high powered frame grabber or vision processor board (or a host subsystem), the resulting system capabilities can be expanded beyond simple image compression. The smart camera subsystem can be integrated with disk or non-volatile semiconductor storage inside or outside the camera to hold sustained real-time data acquisition, a valuable aid to system effectiveness when network connectivity is overloaded or is unavailable.

Applications for smart cameras range from security and surveillance, to robotics in medicine and manufacturing, to military applications such as bots, drones and intelligent weaponry, to satellites and inner and outer space exploration.