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Taxes - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)
3 Months Ended
Apr. 05, 2015
Mar. 30, 2014
Dec. 31, 2014
Tax Credit Carryforward [Line Items]      
Unrecognized Tax Benefits, Increase/Decrease Resulting from Prior Period Tax Positions $ 364,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefitsDecreasesResultingFromPriorPeriodTaxPositions    
Effective Income Tax Rate Continuing Operations 19.00%cgnx_Cgnx_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateContinuingOperationsPriorToDiscreteTaxEvent    
Provision for effective tax rate 18.00%us-gaap_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateContinuingOperations 19.00%us-gaap_EffectiveIncomeTaxRateContinuingOperations  
Increase (decrease) in liabilities, net of deferred tax benefit, for uncertain tax positions 211,000cgnx_IncreaseDecreaseInLiabilityNetOfDeferredTaxBenefitForUncertainTaxPositions    
APIC portion of Decrease In Liability Net Of Deferred Tax Benefit For Uncertain Tax Positions 48,000cgnx_APICportionofDecreaseInLiabilityNetOfDeferredTaxBenefitForUncertainTaxPositions    
tax expense portion of Decrease in Liability Net of Deferred Tax Benefit for Uncertain Tax Positions 163,000cgnx_TaxexpenseportionofDecreaseinLiabilityNetofDeferredTaxBenefitforUncertainTaxPositions    
Increase (decrease) in interest and penalties 15,000cgnx_IncreaseDecreaseInterestAndPenalties    
Unrecognized tax benefit shown as a reduction to noncurrent deferred tax assets     1,028,000cgnx_Unrecognizedtaxbenefitshownasareductiontononcurrentdeferredtaxassets
Liability For Uncertain Tax Positions 5,400,000cgnx_LiabilityForUncertainTaxPositions    
Reserve for income taxes, total 4,372,000us-gaap_LiabilityForUncertainTaxPositionsNoncurrent   4,623,000us-gaap_LiabilityForUncertainTaxPositionsNoncurrent
Interest and penalties, gross 494,000us-gaap_UnrecognizedTaxBenefitsIncomeTaxPenaltiesAndInterestAccrued    
Reserve for income taxes to be recorded in additional paid in capital 616,000cgnx_ReserveForIncomeTaxesToBeRecordedInAdditionalPaidInCapital    
Minimum decrease in income tax expense due to release in reserves 550,000cgnx_MinimumDecreaseInIncomeTaxExpenseDueToReleaseInReserves    
Maximum decrease in income tax expense due to release in reserves $ 650,000cgnx_MaximumDecreaseInIncomeTaxExpenseDueToReleaseInReserves    
Tax years open to examination by Internal Revenue Service 2012 through 2014    
Tax years open to examination by various taxing authorities 2011 through 2014    
Tax years open to examination by various taxing authorities for other entities 2010 through 2014