Researchers in Switzerland and the Netherlands have used event driven image sensors to improve the safety of a multi-rotor autonomous drone.
Once a motor fails, a drone can rotate uncontrollably, making navigation and stabilisation very difficult. Larger drones use GNSS satellite receivers to try to regain control of the system, but this is not practical for smaller aircraft.
“When one rotor fails, the drone begins to spin on itself like a ballerina,” said Davide Scaramuzza, head of the Robotics and Perception Group at UZH and of the Rescue Robotics Grand Challenge at NCCR Robotics, which funded the research. “This high-speed rotational motion causes standard controllers to fail unless the drone has access to very accurate position measurements.”
Instead, the technique developed by the researchers combine data from a standard camera with an event-driven camera sensor that only responds to changes in an image. These event driven, neuromorphic or spiking neural network sensors are being commercialised by companies such as Prophesee in France and Opteran in the UK. The team plans to release the technology as open source.
While the coronavirus pandemic captured the world’s attention in 2020, the climate crisis was also massively destructive, with ramifications including an extended wildfire season in California and tens of thousands of deaths from air pollution and rising temperatures in the United States alone.
The global response to the climate crisis has been muted and insufficient according to international scientists and regulatory agencies, but with revenues and bottom lines at stake, businesses are increasingly changing their ways to adjust for the climate crisis.
More than half of consumers — 57% — say they are willing to change their purchasing behavior “to help reduce negative environmental impact,” according to a study of 18,980 consumers in 29 countries conducted by the National Retail Federation with the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) and published in 2020.
Charleston Business Magazine celebrates another year of honoring the region’s most influential people. The selection of our 50 individuals is a result of staff research and community nominations.
Take a look inside to see who made the list. And this year, we’re adding five members to our Hall of Fame who have continued to make a lasting difference in the Lowcountry.
Two years ago, the computer vision community was abuzz with anticipation for a new type of sensor that promised a revolution in speed and efficiency.
These new sensors are called event cameras, and also know as dynamic vision sensors (DVS) or neuromorphic cameras.
Yet two years later, many of us are now wondering why event cameras seem to have joined Spinal Tap in the “Where Are They Now?” file.
The idea behind event cameras is compelling: a camera that works very much like the human eye. In doing so, it can react quicker, under more circumstances, while transmitting much less data. But before we can understand how an event camera works, let’s first review traditional cameras.
AI chip startup Eta Compute has pivoted away from silicon to become a system solutions company specializing in AI at ultra-low power in edge devices. The startup has also announced a strategic partnership with Synaptics, wherein Synaptics has invested in Eta Compute and will exclusively license the company’s Tensai Flow software. Moving forward, Eta Compute will continue to sell its existing ECM3532 ultra-low power AI chip, though there will be no further generations of Eta Compute silicon. The company will also develop boards and modules based on both the ECM3532 and Synaptics’ new Katana AI SoC.
Katana Edge AI platform will enable facial and object recognition for various low-power devices
Synaptics Inc. announced its newest battery-powered edge computing platform Katana Edge AI in partnership with Eta Compute to enable on-device face biometrics. The new platform combines low power SoC architecture with energy-efficient AI software and is aimed at consumer and IoT applications.
Eta Compute — a leader in energy-efficient endpoint AI solutions for intelligent sensing anywhere — recently announced it closed its Series C funding of $12.5 million. Including this round, the company has raised a total of $31.9 million.
This funding round was led by Synaptics Incorporated along with participation from existing investors. And Satish Ganesan, Chief Strategy Officer at Synaptics, will join the Eta Compute Board of Directors.
And Eta Compute announced a co-development and co-marketing partnership with Synaptics. This partnership gives Eta Compute access to Synaptics’ just announced ultra-low power Katana Edge AI SoC, and Synaptics access to Eta Compute’s TENSAI Flow software and neural network compilers, models and AI applications.
The joint partnership accelerates the introduction of innovative ultra-low power audio- and vision-based edge AI solutions for smart home consumer IoT markets, and for smart industrial IoT (IIoT) applications in buildings, factories, and cities.
In 2020, many companies released flagship low-power devices with the goal of bringing AI to the edge. We’ll review some of the most recent ones and see how they compare.
Synaptics has unveiled the Katana Edge AI platform, as it looks to address a growing industry gap for solutions that enable battery powered devices for consumer and industrial IoT markets.
The platform combines Synaptics’ low power SoC architecture with energy-efficient AI software, enabled by a partnership with Eta Compute. The solution has been optimised for a wide range of ultra-low power use cases in edge devices for office buildings, retail, factories, farms and smart homes. Typical applications include people or object recognition and counting, visual, voice or sound detection, asset or inventory tracking and environmental sensing.
The Katana platform features a multi-core processor architecture that's been optimised for ultra-low-power and low latency voice, audio and vision applications. The full system SoC combines proprietary power and energy optimised neural network and domain specific processing cores, significant on-chip memory, and extensive use of multiple architectural techniques that save power for each unique mode of operation. The Katana Edge AI platform can be combined with Synaptics’ wireless connectivity offerings to provide complete system level modules and solutions.
AI chip startup Eta Compute has pivoted away from silicon to become a system solutions company specializing in AI at ultra-low power in edge devices. The startup has also announced a strategic partnership with Synaptics, wherein Synaptics has invested in Eta Compute and will exclusively license the company’s Tensai Flow software. Moving forward, Eta Compute will continue to sell its existing ECM3532 ultra-low power AI chip, though there will be no further generations of Eta Compute silicon. The company will also develop boards and modules based on both the ECM3532 and Synaptics’ new Katana AI SoC.
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