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2022-04-11
DMP, Restar Electronics and Prophesee announce strategic partnership to jointly develop the world first complete Event-Based Vision-enabled Edge AI Vision System and Services
The end-to-end solution includes integration and data collection services as well as the development of an edge AI FPGA platform.
(Paris, Tokyo- April 11, 2022) – Digital Media Professionals Inc. (DMP), autonomous edge AI specialist, Restar Electronics Corporation (REC), total solutions provider and Prophesee S. A. (Prophesee), inventor of the world’s most advanced neuromorphic vision systems, today announced a strategic partnership agreement to develop an Edge AI FPGA machine vision platform based on Prophesee’s pioneering Metavision® Event-Based Vision technology. The joint collaboration will also include integration and data collection services.
For this solution development, each party contributed their respective area of expertise. Prophesee leverages its Event-Based Metavision sensing technology and machine learning algorithms while DMP creates AI learning and inference models, and then integrates them into ZIA™ C3 FPGA module equipped with its domain-specific edge AI processor and other edge AI systems to optimize the algorithms and hardware for achieving the target accuracy and performance; REC provides an end-to-end service including system level integration and data collection.
Traditional frame-based machine learning techniques require huge data sets, computing power and have accuracy limitations due to the challenges of various lighting conditions and backgrounds. Event-Based Vision addresses those issues through sparse, continuous event input, enabling enhanced performance in how machine learning can be applied to computer vision.
Prophesee’s Event-Based Metavision sensors and software allow high performance sensing in a broad range of lighting conditions from under 1 Lux in low light to HDR conditions and across a multitude of backgrounds thanks to the technology’s native generalization capabilities. This is made possible by intelligent pixels dynamically driven by contrast changes (i.e. motion), not a clock.
This system will be available with an event camera using an Event-Based Vision sensor like Sony’s new IMX636ES, realized in collaboration between Sony and Prophesee. The main target use case is smart city applications for traffic monitoring, foot traffic, customer flow inside building, subway station safety, and smart building.
Appearance of ZIA™ C3 and Prophesee’s event-based sensor camera
“This combination of expertise amongst all three partners has the ability to deliver differentiated and ground-breaking vision systems that enable a new level of low-power efficiency for edge sensing capabilities. We are excited to leverage the synergies between our development teams, technologies and support resources to optimize the potential for AI on the Edge with a true end-to-end solution for our mutual customers,” said Luca Verre, Co-founder and CEO of Prophesee.
“Human eye and brain model based neuromorphic vision sensor technology brings about disruptive innovations in the robotics field where DMP is focusing. We were required to resolve several challenges to realize this practical platform and service, but three parties, DMP with expertise in vision computing, AI and processor hardware, Prophesee with leading event sensor technology,and Restar Electronics with end-to-end solutions capabilities, closely cooperated and overcame them. I believe that we have achieved a significant milestone for further advancement in the robotics field,” said Tatsuo Yamamoto, CEO of DMP.
“We are ready to provide next-generation AI solutions to our customers by leveraging our strengths as a distributor of Sony, Prophesee, and DMP, as well as our global network as a semiconductor trading company. This platform, which combines event-based sensors based on cutting-edge technology from Prophesee and Sony with advanced AI technology from DMP, is a state of the art vision AI solution that will accelerate the smart development of smart cities, smart buildings, and other areas of society. We will continue to sophisticate the application together with our partners and provide end-to-end services,” said Ken Yoshimoto, Senior General Manager, Growth Strategy Division of REC.
