A pill counter is essential equipment in the pharmaceutical packaging industry. Tablet counter machines accurately count and sort tablets, capsules, and soft gels of diverse shapes and sizes, and finally package these medications into bottles or pouches, ensuring precise medicine distribution.

Modern pharmaceutical counting and packaging commonly utilize tablet counting machines equipped with infrared photoelectric sensors, ensuring medication quantity accuracy exceeds 99% per container. Furthermore, an advanced vision-based pill counting machine employing high-speed camera technology surpass this performance, pushing counting precision to reach 99.99%.

a vision-based (left) and an infrared-based (right) counting machine

1. Primary Categories of Pill Counting Machines

Pill counting equipment is broadly classified into three main types based on automation level and technical sophistication, each catering to distinct operational needs in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

a pill counting machine conveying soft gel capsules to subsequent counting channels

• Semi-auto tablet balie machines: Represent a transitional solution between manual and fully automated pill counting. While the actual counting process is automated, these machines require manual feeding of tablets, capsules, or softgels into the hopper. This type of tablet counting machine offers a significant speed improvement over purely manual counting and reduces human error in the tally itself. However, the machines’ reliance on operator involvement for material feeding limits their overall throughput.

• Fully automatic tablet counter machines: Designed for high-volume pharmaceutical manufacturing, fully automatic pill and capsule counters deliver substantial efficiency gains. Many of these counting machines employ technologies like infrared photoelectric sensors for non-contact counting and often feature integrated real-time monitoring systems. These tablet counters can automatically detect and flag common operational faults like capsule jams or abnormal pill existence. Crucially, their high counting accuracy is complemented by advanced connectivity options, allowing a capsule counting machine to be seamlessly integrated into a complete, automated packaging lines alongside bottle filling, capping, and labeling equipment.

the main mechanism of a fully auto pill counter machine

• Professional high-end tablet counting machines: Utilize the most advanced technologies for ultimate precision and reliability, particularly in critical applications. A key feature is the integration of high-speed camera vision systems, which use ultra-fast imaging and high resolution to capture and analyze each individual pill or capsule, significantly boosting counting accuracy, especially for challenging pill shapes or transparent capsules.

Prominent pharmaceutical and packaging machinery manufacturers like Romaco and Ruida Packing are dedicated to continuous innovation to achieve validated accuracy and stability in tablet counting and filling.

Ruida Packing exemplifies this commitment with a diverse range of advanced tablet counters boasting both reliable infrared photoelectric sensors and cutting-edge high-speed vision-based systems for counting. Crucially, this supplier’s counting machines offer scalable solutions featuring vibratory multi-stage channels, ranging from compact 8-channel models ideal for labs or pharmacies to high-capacity 48-channel systems designed for large-scale pharmaceutical production. This versatility ensures precise, high-speed counting and filling of irregularly shaped tablets, soft/hard capsules, and even transparent capsules.

Ruida Packing showcased its vision-based pill counter machine at CPhI Expo 2025

Furthermore, recognizing unique challenges in confectionery, this experienced pharmaceutical equipment supplier has pioneered specialized candy counting machine models that tackle sticky, coated (sugar, oil, sand) candies through a series of anti-clogging mechanisms, including hopper agitators, candy separation rollers, and specially designed Teflon-coated rain-drop vibration trays, guaranteeing smooth, uninterrupted gummy counting and filling for even the most challenging, viscous material.

2. Why do You Need a Vision-Based Counting Machine in Addition to an Infrared-Based Pill Counter?

Compared to an infrared-based pill counting machine that counts pills by detecting the momentary blockage of an infrared light beam caused by each falling pill, a vision-based pill counter model is relatively rare in the market.

2.1 What Are These Two Types of Counting Machines?

A vision-based tablet counting machine is a type of pharmaceutical equipment that uses camera systems to visually identify, count, and verify tablets, capsules, or pills. Instead of mechanical or infrared sensors, it captures high-resolution images of pills and capsules on a counting conveyor, then uses image-processing algorithms to detect and tally each unit based on its visual characteristics (e.g., shape, size, color, or surface markings).

An infrared-based pill counting machine, commonly seen in the market of automatic counting machine, is a type of automated equipment that uses infrared (IR) light beams and sensors to count individual pharmaceutical items such as tablets, capsules, or softgels as they pass through a designated path. In details, an infrared light emitter projects an invisible beam of light across a channel through which pills fall. When no pill is present, the IR beam reaches the sensor. As a pill falls, it blocks the IR beam. Each time the beam is blocked, the sensor registers it as a single count.

the main mechanism of a vision-based pill counter

2.2 What Are Advantages of a Vision-Based Pill Capsule Counter Machine?

In comparison, a vision-based tablet capsule counting machine enjoys obvious advantages over an infrared-based (IR-based) tablet counter machine:

2.3 Shape Handling: Beyond Spherical Limits

An infrared-based tablet counting filling machine relies on a single infrared beam crossing a narrow channel/chute. A pill is counted only when it fully interrupts the beam. This works for spherical, uniformly shaped pills and capsules but fails dramatically with:

• Irregular pill shapes: A tilted or asymmetrical pill may only partially block an infrared beam, causing undercounting.
• Damaged/fragmented pills: Small fragments may not block abeam at all, while large fragments might register as full pills.

Comparably, in a vision-based tablet counting and filling machine, high-speed cameras capture 2D/3D images of each pill at microsecond intervals. Advanced algorithms then:

• Map edges to detect non-uniform shapes such as heart-shaped vitamin pills.
• Measure morphological features including area, perimeter, aspect ratio to distinguish fragments from normal pills.

Example: An oval tablet that becomes tilted when it’s falling is still counted because the tablet capsule counting machine recognizes its unique outline, not not beam blockage.

a vision-based capsule counting machine handling an immense quantity of softgels

2.4 Transparency Handling: Seeing Invisible Items

In an IR-based automatic capsule counting machine, if infrared light passes through transparent medicine such as plant-based capsules and clear softgels without significant interruption, it may cause:

• False negatives: Transparent capsules may not block infrared beams, resulting in undercounting.
• Inconsistency with semi-transparent items: Variations in capsule wall thickness or liquid fillings lead to unstable beam penetration, causing unreliable counts.

Compared to this machine type, a vision-based tablet counter uses CCD cameras or CMOS cameras, and backlighting + high-resolution optics technology. This helps the counter adjust lighting angles and camera exposure, thereby making faint edges of clear gels visible, as transparent capsules bend light, creating detectable edges or shadow patterns.

Example: A clear empty gelatin capsule is counted because its rim refracts light, creating a recognizable circular outline against a dark background.

2.5 Surface Inspection of Each Pill: Non-negotiable cGMP Compliance

A vision-based capsule counter utilizes high-resolution cameras and sophisticated image processing software to perform detailed surface inspection of each tablet or capsule. As pills travel along feed channels or a vibratory panel, the tablet counting captures multiple high-definition images from various angles under controlled lighting. Advanced algorithms then analyze these images pixel-by-pixel, comparing pill surface against predefined quality parameters.

With this functional help, the pill counting machine is able to carry out:

• Defect Identification: Detects microscopic anomalies like tablet cracks, surface scratches, dents, surface pitting, or material discoloration invisible to the naked eye or IR sensors.
• Contamination Detection: Identifies foreign particles, stains, oil spots, or powder residues adhering to the pill surface.
• Coating Integrity Check: For coated tablets, the tablet counting machine assesses uniformity, detects coating cracks, peeling, or mottling.
• Marking Verification: Checks the legibility, positioning, and accuracy of imprints or engravings such as dosage codes and pharma logos.

This real-time inspection integrates quality control directly into the counting process. By automatically rejecting defective or contaminated pills as they are counted, a vision-based pill capsule counting machine prevents compromised medications from reaching packaging. It helps lower the risk of reclaiming products, ensures pharmaceutical integrity, and guarantees strict compliance with cGMP regulations.

2.6 Vision Counting of Exceptionally Higher Speed 

Vision-based tablet counters achieve significantly higher speeds primarily through non-interruptive, parallel processing. Unlike IR sensors requiring pills and capsules to physically break single beams one by one, a high-speed camera captures an entire image frame of the medicine dispensing area for multiple times per second. Sophisticated image processing algorithms then instantly identify, locate, and count all visible pills within each frame simultaneously, regardless of their proximity, as long as they aren’t perfectly stacked. This eliminates the critical bottleneck of IR systems: the mandatory physical separation of pills to ensure only one pill breaks the infrared beam at a time.

Benefits come with higher processing speed:

• Massive Throughput Increase: Essential for large-scale pharmaceutical production lines, boosting output by 2 to 3 times.
• Reduced Need for Pill Singulation: Eliminates complex equipment vibration adjustment or forced separation mechanisms required by an IR automatic tablet counter to prevent overlapping pills which cause miscounts, simplifying machine design and operation.

Ruida Packing displays its vision-based pill counter machine at CPhI Expo 2025

2.7 Multi-Item Resolution: Not Worried about Pill Stacking

Vision-based counting excels where pills overlap or stack while moving through a channel. To address this issue, high-speed cameras capture detailed images of pill streams, and image processing system then analyzes images to identify individual pills within a cluster.

Using techniques like edge detection, shape recognition, and AI-powered segmentation, the vision-based tablet counter machine distinguishes boundaries even when pills and capsules partially obscure each other. The pill counter counts each distinct pill shape detected. In contrast, an IR beam only registers a single interruption event whenever several pills block the light beam simultaneously – counting a clump as “one”, leading to undercounting.

Final Lines: The Unmatched Edge of Vision-Based Pill Counting

Vision inspection tablet counting machines demonstrate clear and measurable superiority over conventional IR-based pill counters, particularly in critical pharmaceutical manufacturing. While IR tablet counters typically achieve accuracies of 99.0–99.5%, advanced vision counting machines deliver precision exceeding 99.99%. This extreme accuracy, enabled by high-speed, high-resolution imaging that captures minute details of each pill, makes vision technology indispensable for cGMP-compliant medical production, brand-sensitive pharmaceuticals, and high-dosage precision therapies.

Beyond counting, integrated vision inspection modules enable real-time color and automatic rejection of non-conforming or damaged items, adding a vital layer of quality control. Furthermore, industrial-grade camera systems ensure stability, operating reliably even in high-dust tablet production environments. For manufacturers prioritizing zero-defect output and supply chain integrity, vision-based tablet counting isn’t just an upgrade – it’s the new standard for assurance in modern pharmaceutical production.