companies
Robotic automation coming to plant nurseries
Eric Smalley writes in a Wired report that several companies are testing autonomous robots for plant nurseries that grow ornamental shrubs and trees. The robots use computer vision and other sensors to navigate and to pick up and deliver potted shrubs and trees. One startup, Harvest Automation, has raised $5 million in venture capital. A video of the robots in action is available here.
Related articles on Computer Vision Central:
- Computer vision for agriculture increases profits, reduces waste
- Google awards research grant in mobile crop surveillance
- Computer Vision used to target individual weeds
- Vision-based pruning system reduces labor costs in vineyards
- Senate-approved Department of Agriculture appropriations bill includes funding for computer vision staff
- Vision analysis can estimate crop yields earlier
NVIDIA introduces Tegra 3 for tablets and phones
NVIDIA has introduced the quad-core Tegra 3 for mobile devices including tablets and phones. This embedded system was formely code-named "Project Kal-El". In addition to the four high-performance main cores, the Tegra 3 comes with a fifth low-power core which is used when high-performance applications are not running, to extend battery life. There is also a new 12-core GeFORCE GPU. The Tegra 3 will provide a powerful new platform for mobile computer vision applications.
Related articles:
Improving smartphone cameras
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $450,000 to Colorado-based company FiveFocal to improve the manufacturing of camera modules for mobile phones and other platforms. The grant is primarily targeted to increasing yields, which would reduce costs; however, it is likely that the improved manufacturing process monitoring will lead to higher quality as well. Increasing numbers of apps that require computer vision software are being written for smartphone platforms; higher and more consistent imaging quality will enhance the performance of many of those computer vision apps. A detailed description of the project is included below.
Apple buys C3 Technologies
According to GPS Business News, Apple is buying C3 Technologies for $267 million. C3 Technologies is a Swedish company that provides 3D images of cities. It has vision technology to create 3D models from oblique camera systems without LIDAR.
Facebook facial recognition may violate EU privacy laws
Facebook has been warned by a German government lawyer to bring its facial recognition software into conformity with privacy laws in Germany and the European Union by November 7th. The action stems from Facebook's application that allows users to identify other people in online photos. Facebook is accused of violating data protection laws because it collected personal data without the explicit consent of its users. More information is available in a CIO article.
Related news on Computer Vision Central:
Picitup announces public launch of iOnRoad
Computer Vision startup Picitup announced the public launch of iOnRoad, a vehicle collision warning app that runs on a smartphone. Optional features in addition to collision warnings include providing safety feedback to drivers, sharing driving achievements on social networks, and automatically posting to Facebook snapshots of road hazards or reckless drivers.
According to the press release, "The iOnRoad app takes advantage of the processing power and multi-tasking capabilities of high-end Android handsets, missing from even the iPhone 4S. 'The iOnRoad app could only have been developed for Android,' said Alon Atsmon, CEO of Picitup."
Related articles:
Point Grey announces smallest USB 3.0 camera
Press release from Point Grey
Point Grey, a world leader of advanced digital camera technology, today announced another innovation in imaging with the release of its new Flea3 USB 3.0 camera series.
Measuring just 29 x 29 x 30mm, the FL3-U3 is the smallest USB 3.0 camera in the world and is designed specifically for the demanding requirements of machine and computer vision applications. The first available models are based on monochrome and color versions of the Sony® IMX036, a high-quality CMOS sensor capable of generating 3.2 megapixel images at 60 FPS.
"We are very excited to start production of our first USB 3.0 cameras and begin addressing the huge amount of demand we're seeing for this technology," says Michael Gibbons, Product Marketing Manager. Gibbons adds, "USB 3.0 is rapidly gaining industry acceptance, largely due to its higher bandwidth, improved reliability and architecture, and widespread availability on a variety of hardware platforms."
With a practical limit of 384 MBytes/s, USB 3.0 is almost 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and 5 times faster than FireWire-b. The increased data throughput and improved 4.5 W of power delivery further makes USB 3.0 well-suited for many of the high-speed, multi-megapixel area scan image sensors on the market today. Most laptop, desktop, and embedded systems now provide USB 3.0 ports, which maximizes system compatibility and minimizes the need for add-in PCI or PCI Express interface cards. Easy access to high quality, low cost components like cables and hubs also allows end users to lower the overall cost of their systems.
Qualcomm releases FastCV embedded vision library for mobile devices
Qualcomm announced that is releasing FastCV, a computer vision library optimized for mobile platforms. FastCV offers hardware acceleration and an API for ARM processors. According to a Qualcomm blog post,
"FastCV is the framework at the heart of our vision-based Augmented Reality (AR) SDK, because AR is much more precise and useful when it’s based on camera input than on location-based estimates. We anticipate FastCV will be used by middleware developers to build additional frameworks that will allow developers of computer vision apps to build compelling experiences around CV that take advantage of:
* gesture recognition
* face detection, tracking and recognition
* text recognition and tracking
* depth of field calculations"
The FastCV SDK is available at: http://developer.qualcomm.com/fastcv.
Omnitouch wearable depth-sensing multitouch system
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (Chris Harrison) and Microsoft (Hrvoje Benko and Andrew D. Wilson) have developed OmniTouch, a wearable projection system that makes any object a graphical, interactive surface. The projector can superimpose images of keyboards and other controls on any surface, adjusting for the object's surface and size. The system uses a depth-sensing camera to track the user's fingers on the object surface. According to Benko, "We see this work as an evolutionary step in a larger effort at Microsoft Research to investigate the unconventional use of touch and gesture in devices to extend our vision of ubiquitous computing even further."
The current system is shoulder mounted, but future models would be smaller and could be integrated into handheld devices. More information is available in a press relesae.
EBay adding image recognition to mobile shopping apps
USA Today reports that EBay is planning to add a shopping by image recognition capability to its mobile apps. Customers will be able to send a picture of an item to EBay, which will match it to similar items that can be purchased on Ebay.
Related articles: