Embedded Vision Summit 2022

The Edge AI and Vision Alliance, a 118-company worldwide industry partnership is organizing the 2022 Embedded Vision Summit, May 16-19 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California.

The premier conference and tradeshow for practical, deployable computer vision and edge AI, the Summit focuses on empowering product creators to bring perceptual intelligence to products. This year’s Summit will attract more than 1,000 innovators and feature 90+ expert speakers and 60+ exhibitors across four days of presentations, exhibits and deep-dive sessions. Registration is now open.

Highlights of this year’s program include:

• Keynote speaker Prof. Ryad Benosman of University of Pittsburgh and the CMU Robotics Institute will speak on “Event-based Neuromorphic Perception and Computation: The Future of Sensing and AI”
• General session speakers include:
• Zach Shelby, co-founder and CEO of Edge Impulse, speaking on “How Do We Enable Edge ML Everywhere? Data, Reliability, and Silicon Flexibility”
• Ziad Asghar, Vice President of Product Management at Qualcomm, speaking on “Powering the Connected Intelligent Edge and the Future of On-Device AI”
• 90+ sessions across four tracks—Fundamentals, Technical Insights, Business Insights, and Enabling Technologies
• 60+ exhibitors including Premier Sponsors Edge Impulse and Qualcomm, Platinum Sponsors FlexLogix and Intel, and Gold Sponsors Arm, Arrow, Avnet, BDTi, City of Oulu, Cadence, Hailo, Lattice, Luxonis, Network Optics, Nota, Perceive, STMicroelectronics, Synaptics and AMD Xilinx
• Deep Dive Sessions — offering opportunities to explore cutting-edge topics in-depth — presented by Edge Impulse, Qualcomm, Intel, and Synopsys
• “We are delighted to return to being in-person for the Embedded Vision Summit after two years of online Summits,” said Jeff Bier, founder of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance. “Innovation in visual and edge AI continues at an astonishing pace, so it’s more important than ever to be able to see, in one place, the myriad of practical applications, use cases and building-block technologies. Attendees with diverse technical and business backgrounds tell us this is the one event where they get a complete picture and can rapidly sort out the hype from what’s working. A whopping 98% of attendees would recommend attending to a colleague.”

Registration is now open at https://embeddedvisionsummit.com.

The Embedded Vision Summit is operated by the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, a worldwide industry partnership bringing together technology providers and end-product companies to accelerate the adoption of edge AI and vision in products. More at https://edge-ai-vision.com.

EETimes Article

EETimes has published a "teaser" article written by the general chair of this year's summit.

Half a billion years ago something remarkable occurred: an astonishing, sudden increase in new species of organisms. Paleontologists call it the Cambrian Explosion, and many of the animals on the planet today trace their lineage back to this event.

A similar thing is happening in processors for embedded vision and artificial intelligence (AI) today, and nowhere will that be more evident than at the Embedded Vision Summit, which will be an in–person event held in Santa Clara, California, from May 16–19. The Summit focuses on practical know–how for product creators incorporating AI and vision in their products. These products demand AI processors that balance conflicting needs for high performance, low power, and cost sensitivity. The staggering number of embedded AI chips that will be on display at the Summit underscores the industry’s response to this demand. While the sheer number of processors targeting computer vision and ML is overwhelming, there are some natural groupings that make the field easier to comprehend. Here are some themes we’re seeing. 

Founded in 2011, the Edge AI and Vision Alliance is a worldwide industry partnership that brings together technology providers who are enabling innovative and practical applications for edge AI and computer vision. Its 100+ Member companies include suppliers of processors, sensors, software and services.

First, some processor suppliers are thinking about how to best serve applications that simultaneously apply machine learning (ML) to data from diverse sensor types — for example, audio and video. Synaptics’ Katana low–power processor, for example, fuses inputs from a variety of sensors, including vision, sound, and environmental. Xperi’s talk on smart toys for the future touches on this, as well.

Second, a subset of processor suppliers are focused on driving power and cost down to a minimum. This is interesting because it enables new applications. For example, Cadence will be presenting on additions to their Tensilica processor portfolio that enable always–on AI applications. Arm will be presenting low–power vision and ML use cases based on their Cortex–M series of processors. And Qualcomm will be covering tools for creating low–power computer vision apps on their Snapdragon family.

Third, although many processor suppliers are focused mainly or exclusively on ML, a few are addressing other kinds of algorithms typically used in conjunction with deep neural networks, such as classical computer vision and image processing.  A great example is quadric, whose new q16 processor is claimed to excel at a wide range of algorithms, including both ML and conventional computer vision.

Finally, an entirely new species seems to be coming to the fore: neuromorphic processors. Neuromorphic computing refers to approaches that mimic the way the brain processes information. For example, biological vision systems process events in the field of view, as opposed to classical computer vision approaches that typically capture and process all the pixels in a scene at a fixed frame rate that has no relation to the source of the visual information. The Summit’s keynote talk, “Event–based Neuromorphic Perception and Computation: The Future of Sensing and AI” by Prof. Ryad Benosman, will give an overview of the advantages to be gained by neuromorphic approaches. Opteran will be presenting on their neuromorphic processing approach to enable vastly improved vision and autonomy, the design of which was inspired by insect brains.

Whatever your application is, and whatever your requirements are, somewhere out there is an embedded AI or vision processor that’s the best fit for you. At the Summit, you’ll be able to learn about many of them, and speak with the innovative companies developing them.  Come check them out, and be sure to check back in 10 years — when we will see how many of 2032’s AI processors trace their lineage to this modern–day Cambrian Explosion!

—Jeff Bier is the president of consulting firm BDTI, founder of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and the general chair of the Embedded Vision Summit.

About the Edge AI and Vision Alliance

The mission of the Alliance is to accelerate the adoption of edge AI and vision technology by:

• Inspiring and empowering product creators to incorporate AI and vision technology into new products and applications
• Helping Member companies achieve success with edge AI and vision technology by:
• Building a vibrant AI and vision ecosystem by bringing together suppliers, end-product designers, and partners
• Delivering timely insights into AI and vision market research, technology trends, standards and application requirements
• Assisting in understanding and overcoming the challenges of incorporating AI in their products and businesses