The present invention relates to machine vision computing environments, and more specifically relates to a system and method for selectively accelerating the execution of image processing applications using a multi-core processor system. To this extent, a multi-core processor system is generally defined as one that is multi-platform, and potentially distributed via a network or other connection. The invention provides a machine vision system and method for executing image processing applications referred to herein as an image co-processor that comprises (among other things) a plurality of multi-core processors (MCPs) that work to process multiple images in an accelerated fashion.