Opinion

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Energy-efficient Processors are Critical for Embedded Vision

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, I walked many miles and saw countless demos. Several of these demos were memorable, but one in particular really got my mental gears turning: Microsoft’s HoloLens. HoloLens, of course, is Microsoft’s “mixed reality” glasses product, which has been shipping in pre-production form for about a year. (Previously, I would have used the term “augmented reality” to refer to HoloLens, which overlays computer-generated graphics on the user’s view of the Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Will Computer Vision Upend the Automotive Industry?

Earlier this week, Google announced the spin-off of its self-driving car project into a stand-alone business. Will Google become a major player in the automotive industry? Today, that idea seems far-fetched. On the other hand, 15 years ago Apple was a personal computer company, and few would have guessed that it would eventually become a dominant player in consumer electronics and photography. The Google announcement resonated with me in light of a fascinating recent presentation by Mark Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—What Hand-Eye Coordination Tells Us About Computer Vision

For humans, it goes without saying that vision is extremely valuable. When you stop to think about it, it’s remarkable what a diverse set of capabilities is enabled by human vision – from reading facial expressions, to navigating complex three-dimensional spaces (whether by foot, bicycle, car, or otherwise), to performing intricate tasks like threading a needle. One of the reasons why I’m so excited about the potential of computer vision is that I believe that it will bring a similar range of Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Putting the Reality in Augmented and Virtual Reality

Based on the pace of investment and acquisitions, and the level of buzz (some would say "hype") surrounding augmented reality and virtual reality, it is obvious that these technologies are hot. With good reason, I think. Augmented and virtual reality have long held enormous promise, but the challenge of making them work robustly – along with the cost, size and power consumption of the necessary hardware – have severely limited their use. In the past few years, though, what had been steady Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Going Deep: Why Depth Sensing Will Proliferate

If you’ve read recent editions of this column, you know that I believe that embedded vision – enabling devices to understand the world visually – will be a game-changer for many industries.  For humans, vision enables many diverse capabilities: reading your spouse’s facial expression, navigating your car through a parking garage, or threading a needle.  Similarly, embedded vision is now enabling all sorts of devices (from vacuum cleaning robots to cars) to be more autonomous, easier to use, Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—The Internet of Insights

The Internet of Things is an interesting phenomenon.  Most people involved in technology seem to believe that the IoT growing fast, and that it represents a big opportunity.  But most people also find it difficult to say exactly what the Internet of Things actually is, and how, ultimately, it will deliver substantial value for consumers, businesses and other organizations. I believe that the value of the Internet of Things is that it’s a way to tap into vast amounts of data from the physical Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Will Neural Network Processors Become Mainstream?

Last summer, I wrote that the time was ripe for deployment of neural networks in mass-market applications. Last week, Google validated this point of view by announcing that is has developed a specialized processor for neural networks (dubbed the "Tensor Processing Unit," or TPU), and that these processors have been deployed in Google's data centers for more than a year. What's the significance of this? I believe that Google's recent statements validate three important points that help to Read more...

Deep Learning and Digital Signal Processing: A Conversation with Cadence's Chris Rowen

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and other "deep learning" techniques are finding increasing use in a variety of detection and recognition tasks:  identifying music clips and speech phrases, for example, and finding human faces and other objects in images and videos. As a result, we’ve been covering deep learning concepts and implementations regularly in InsideDSP columns and news articles. Chris Rowen, Chief Technology Officer of Cadence Design Systems' IP Group, will be speaking about the Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Your Autonomous Vehicle Is Ready Now…For Your Living Room

We've been hearing a lot about autonomous cars lately – and for good reasons. Driverless cars offer enormous opportunities for improved safety, convenience, and efficiency. Their proliferation may have as profound an impact on our society as conventional automobiles have had over the past century. But deploying autonomous cars widely is going to take a while, given the complexity of the application and the associated technological and regulatory challenges. In the meantime, autonomous vehicles Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—One Sensor to Rule Them All

It's no secret that sensors are proliferating. Our smartphones, for example, contain accelerometers, magnetometers, ambient light sensors, microphones – over a dozen distinct types of sensors. A modern automobile contains roughly 200 sensors. As sensors proliferate, the amount of data generated by these sensors grows too, of course. But different types of sensors produce vastly different amounts of data. As Chris Rowen, CTO of Cadence's IP group, recently pointed out in an excellent Read more...