FLIR invests in CVEDIA to expand AI expertise for autonomous sensing
FLIR Systems (Wilsonville, OR; NASDAQ: FLIR) and CVEDIA (Singapore) announced that FLIR has made a strategic investment in CVEDIA, developers of machine learning applications that are used to efficiently enable sensor systems with artificial intelligence (AI). FLIR recently launched an open-source thermal imaging dataset to improve autonomous vehicle navigation, as part of its initiative to improve autonomous sensing.
CVEDIA's SynCity simulator software tool provides ultrarealistic, multimodal, digital environments for autonomous system OEMs and related sensor makers to train their systems in a much faster, safer, and more affordable manner than by using traditional data collection techniques. CVEDIA has developed SynCity to feature real-world physics; simulate a multitude of lighting and environmental conditions; and render objects such as people, animals, and automobiles in a manner that AI systems interpret them as real and lifelike. This produces high-quality datasets that are fed into customer neural network frameworks, materially shortening the time and easing the process of training these deep-learning systems.
The strategic investment by FLIR in CVEDIA will create opportunities for the companies to accelerate the development of thermal spectrum-based deep learning training tools for use by FLIR and selected partners in integrating AI into FLIR sensors and systems. FLIR's advanced thermal imaging sensors are an ideal technology for detecting living beings, seeing at night and through adverse environmental conditions, and in identifying industrial process abnormalities, making them a key capability in automotive, military, and industrial applications. The investment will also provide CVEDIA with growth capital to enable the expansion of their business.
"This investment in CVEDIA will enhance our ability to innovate sensing solutions that enable our customers to more quickly and accurately make their mission-critical decisions," said James Cannon, President and CEO of FLIR. "The addition of software algorithms that automatically inform a user or system of critical information is a valuable feature that augments the distinctive and rich data our sensors produce. We see wide applicability of these tools in our innovation of highly advanced solutions, and we look forward to the collaboration with the CVEDIA team."
SOURCE: FLIR; http://investors.flir.com/news-releases/news-release-details/flir-systems-completes-strategic-investment-cvedia
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.