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
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.
Picture 1: Video of smart city camera : it is impossible to detect inside the station because of saturation.
Picture 2: Video of event camera : possible to detect even inside the station arcade because of its light invariant performance.
“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.
ABOUT PROPHESEE
Prophesee is the inventor of the world’s most advanced neuromorphic vision systems.
The company developed a breakthrough Event-Based Vision approach to machine vision. This new vision category allows for significant reductions of power, latency and data processing requirements to reveal what was invisible to traditional frame-based sensors until now. Prophesee’s patented Metavision® sensors and algorithms mimic how the human eye and brain work to dramatically improve efficiency in areas such as autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, IoT, mobile and AR/VR. Prophesee is based in Paris, with local offices in Grenoble, Shanghai, Tokyo and Silicon Valley.
The company is driven by a team of more than 100 visionary engineers, holds more than 50 international patents and is backed by leading international equity and corporate investors including 360 Capital Partners, European Investment Bank, iBionext, Inno-Chip, Intel Capital, Renault Group, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Sinovation, Supernova Invest, Xiaomi.
Learn more: www.prophesee.ai
ABOUT DMP
DMP is an R&D-type fabless semiconductor vendor that originally focused on licensing business of hardware IPs and software IPs based on proprietary 2D/3D graphics technology for embedded devices, as well as graphics LSI business that incorporates these IPs. In recent years, in order to become the world’s leading “AI Computing Company”, DMP provides solutions through a broad portfolio including AI processor IPs, hardware / software products and services, and AI ecosystem established by its own.
ABOUT RESTAR ELECTRONICS
Restar Electronics is an electronics trading company that handles a wide variety of semiconductors and high-performance electronic components in Japan and overseas.
We provide optimal solutions to our customers through our extensive lineup, detailed support, advanced technical support, proposals for unique system modules and solutions, and overseas base networks.
CONTACT
DMP
Hiroyuki Umeda, Sales & Marketing Department, info_06@dmprof.com, +81-3-6454-0450
https://www.dmprof.com/en/contact/
RESTAR ELECTRONICS
Koji Tanojiri, Business Planinig Department, koji.tanojiri@restargp.com, +81-3-5781-1011
PROPHESEE
US-EU Agency: Mike Sottak, mike@wiredislandpr.com +1 650248-9597
Prophesee Global: Guillaume Butin, Marketing Communication Director: press@prophesee.ai
