AI News: Ambarella, Geo, Nvidia, Omron, Rockchip, Intel, Mediatek

BusinessWire: Ambarella introduces the CV22 camera SoC, the second chip in the CVflow family, combining image processing, 4Kp60 video encoding and CVflow computer vision processing in a single, low power design in 10nm process. The CV22’s CVflow architecture provides the DNN processing for the next generation of home monitoring, automotive, drone and wearable cameras.

“CV22 enables customers to deploy cameras with high-performance deep-learning capabilities,” said Fermi Wang, CEO of Ambarella. “Compared with inefficient CPU and GPU solutions, CV22 provides powerful computer vision performance combined with high-quality image processing, efficient video encoding and the low-power operation required to be deployed in mass production. It will enable a new level of intelligence in cameras, ranging from person recognition in home monitoring cameras to advanced ADAS capabilities in automobiles.”

CV22 SoC features:

• CVflow processor with CNN/deep learning support
• 4Kp60/8-Megapixel AVC and HEVC encoding with multi-stream support
• Real-time hardware-accelerated 360-degree de-warping and Lens Distortion Correction (LDC) engine
• Multi-channel ISP with up to 800-Megapixel/s input pixel rate
• Multi-exposure HDR and WDR processing
• LED flicker mitigation
• SmartAVC and SmartHEVC intelligent rate control for lowest bitrates in security applications
• Multi-sensor support for multi-imager security cameras, 3-channel electronic mirror and 4-channel AVM systems

BusinessWire: GEO Semiconductor announces the GW5200 and GW5400 CVP’s for automotive cameras. The GW5400 has in-camera computer vision to enable ADAS functionality.

“The GW5 product is a major advance as automotive camera technologies evolve to combine viewing and computer vision applications in a single camera. At GEO we are focused on bringing safety benefits to the edge by adding computer vision and ADAS to lower cost automotive camera solutions,” said Dave Orton, GEO CEO, “with design wins at many of the major automotive OEM’s, we are looking to build on our market success by enabling smart backup camera, eMirror, Driver Monitoring Systems, and other innovative automotive camera solutions.”

Nvidia unveils Xavier processor with AI capabilities for its Drive platform. With more than 9 billion transistors, Xavier is said to be the most complex SoC ever created, representing the work of more than 2,000 NVIDIA engineers over a four-year period, and an investment of $2 billion in R&D.

It’s built around a custom 8-core CPU, a new 512-core Volta GPU, a new deep learning accelerator, new computer vision accelerators and new 8K HDR video processors. All previous NVIDIA DRIVE software development carries over and runs. DRIVE Xavier puts more processing power to work using less energy, delivering 30 trillion operations per second while consuming just 30 watts. It’s 15 times more energy efficient than our previous generation architecture.

GlobeNewsWire: NVIDIA, ZF and Baidu today announced that they are creating a production-ready AI autonomous vehicle platform designed for China, the world’s largest automotive market.

PRNewswire: OMRON too is putting AI to work to promote automotive safety. OMRON VOR technology can detect early-stage signs of drowsiness by sensing eye movements using a remotely installed automotive camera. While other current technology typically observes blinking to detect drowsy driving, OMRON's new technology observes the correlation between head and eye movements – a reflex motion that is difficult for drivers to control.

This technology enables simultaneous measurement of the driver's gaze angle and 3-D eye position using a single camera for highly precise gaze detection with accuracy of plus or minus 1 degree. By understanding the movement of the driver’s pupil, OMRON's VOR system can detect signs of drowsiness one to two minutes before the driver is even aware he or she feels sleepy, and promote safe driving.

"Artificial intelligence identifies the expression and attitude of the driver and analyzes that data over time to determine if the driver is paying attention to the road or incapacitated. The car can accordingly enact safety measures, like automatic control, warnings or actions to make our roads safer," says Deron Jackson, CTO of OMRON Adept Technologies.

PRNewswire: Rockchip released its first AI processor RK3399Pro, an one-stop turnkey solution for AI. Computing performance of its NPU (Neural Network Processing Unit) reaches 2.4TOPs. Its NPU computing performance is said to be 150% higher than other same type NPU processor; the power consumption is less than 1%, comparing with other solutions adopting GPU as AI computing unit.

MIT Technology Review: Intel shows its Loihi AI processor that learns to recognize objects in pictures captured by a webcam. The new chip uses about a thousandth as much power as a conventional processor.

Update: PRNewswire: MediaTek reveals more detailed its ongoing AI platform strategy to enable AI edge computing with its NeuroPilot AI platform. Through a combination of hardware and software, an AI processing unit (APU), and NeuroPilot SDK, MediaTek intends to bring AI across its wide-ranging portfolio that of consumer products: smartphones, smart homes, autos and more.