Opinion

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—The Camera is the Ultimate Link Between the Real World and Computers

As a kid, I was fascinated with electronics – especially digital electronics. The idea that one could build a computing machine out of simple logic gates was a revelation, and designing such things was thrilling. But as powerful and flexible as digital computers are, we live in an analog world. Hence, analog-to-digital converters play a critical role. When I first encountered them, I found A/D converters exotic – even magical. With them, one could not only construct a computer, but also enable Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Computer Vision: At the Edge or In the Cloud? It Depends

About seven years ago, my colleagues and I realized that it would soon become practical to incorporate computer vision into cost- and power-constrained embedded systems. We recognized that this would be a world-changing development, due to the vast range of valuable capabilities that vision enables. It’s been gratifying to see this potential come to fruition, with a growing number of innovative vision-enabled products finding market success. What we didn’t anticipate in 2011 was the important Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Is Deep Learning the Solution to All Computer Vision Problems?

At the Embedded Vision Summit in May, I had the privilege of hearing a brilliant keynote presentation from Professor Jitendra Malik of UC Berkeley. Malik, whose research and teaching have helped shape the field of computer vision for 30 years, explained that he had been skeptical about the value of deep neural networks for computer vision, but ultimately changed his mind in the face of a growing body of impressive results. There’s no question that deep neural networks (DNNs) have transformed Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Embedded Vision Enables Truly Smart Cities

On a recent vacation, I was struck by how indispensable smartphones have become for travelers. GPS-powered maps enable us to navigate unfamiliar cities. Language translation apps help us make sense of unfamiliar languages. Looking for a train, taxi, museum, restaurant, shop or park? A few taps of the screen and you’ve found it. And yet, there’s a vast amount of useful information that isn’t at our fingertips. Where’s the nearest available parking space? How crowded is that bus, restaurant, or Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Privacy in the Era of Ubiquitous Cameras and AI

Lately I’ve been thinking about the relationship between embedded vision and privacy. Surveillance cameras are nothing new, of course. For decades, they’ve been ubiquitous in and around restaurants, stores, banks, offices, airports, train stations, etc. In the course of a typical week, I’d guess that my image is captured by dozens of these cameras. As someone who values privacy, the presence of so many surveillance cameras can be unsettling. But I’ve been comforted by the idea of “privacy Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Up to Our Eyeballs in Deep Learning Processors

At the recent Embedded Vision Summit, I was struck by the number of companies talking up their new processors for deep neural network applications. Whether they’re sold as chips, modules, systems, or IP cores, by my count there are roughly 50 companies offering processors for deep learning applications. That’s a staggering figure, considering that there were none just a few years ago. Even NVIDIA, which has enjoyed wide adoption of its GPUs for deep learning applications, introduced a Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Video Cameras Without Video

Remember when mobile phones were for making phone calls? Given today’s reality, it can be difficult to recall the time – not so long ago – when mobile phones had one purpose: making phone calls. Today, the situation is very different; most people use their phones mainly for sending texts, reading email and news, social networking, navigating, shopping and watching videos. And maybe – rarely – making a phone call. Video cameras are on a similar path: soon, most video cameras will not actually Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Why SLAM is Becoming the New GPS

GPS has proven to be an extraordinarily valuable and versatile technology. Originally developed for the military, today GPS is used in a vast and diverse range of applications. Millions of people use it daily for navigation and fitness. Farmers use it to manage their crops. Drones use it to automatically return to their starting location. Railroads use it to track train cars and other equipment. In the 40 years since the first GPS satellite was launched, GPS receivers have shrunk dramatically Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Will Deep Learning Displace All Other Computer Vision Techniques?

It's remarkable to see the range of applications in which deep neural networks are proving effective – often, significantly more effective than previously known techniques. From speech recognition to ranking web search results to object recognition, each day brings a new product or published paper with a new challenge tamed by deep learning. Computer vision, of course, is a field with significant deep learning activity. Deep learning is particularly appealing for visual perception because Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Deployable Artificial Neural Networks Will Change Everything

In recent months, evidence has continued to mount that artificial neural networks of the "deep learning" variety are significantly better than previous techniques at a diverse range of visual understanding tasks. For example, Yannis Assael and colleagues from Oxford have demonstrated a deep learning algorithm for lip reading that is dramatically more accurate than trained human lip readers, and much more accurate than the best previously published algorithms. Meanwhile, Andre Esteva, Brett Read more...