Opinion

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Unlocking the Value in Video

Today, billions of hours of video are collected each year, but most of it is never used, because we don't have a practical way to extract actionable information from it. A new generation of computer vision solutions, powered by deep neural networks, will soon change this, unleashing the tremendous value that's currently locked away in our video files. As a kid in the late 1970s, I remember some of the early consumer video cameras. They were very big, very heavy, and very expensive. In the Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Intuition in a Box?

Since reading Malcolm Gladwell's Blink a decade ago, I've been intrigued by how the mind works – particularly how judgements and decisions are made. I've been inspired to take an armchair tour of research on this topic, and have encountered fascinating insights from the likes of David Eagleman and Daniel Kahneman. Reading the work of these talented researchers and writers has led me to the inescapable conclusion that most of our judgements and decision-making take place in our subconscious Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Why Do Embedded Processor Software Development Tools Suck? It’s the Unknown Knowns

In 2002, in a famous piece of unintentional rhetorical artistry, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spoke to reporters about "known knowns" (things you're aware that you know), "known unknowns" (things you're aware that you don't know) and "unknown unknowns" (things you're unaware that you don't know). As every programmer immediately realized, the category that Rumsfeld didn't mention is the "unknown knowns" – things you know but don't realize that you know. Lately, I've come to the view Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—When Comparing Processors, Beware of the Uncertainty Principle

My colleagues and I at BDTI frequently evaluate processors – sometimes on behalf of processor suppliers, and sometimes on behalf of processors users. Comparing processors can be complicated, given their many attributes, including some (like energy efficiency) that are difficult to compare accurately, and others (like ease-of-use) that are inherently subjective. Several recent conversations with processor suppliers have reminded me of another serious hazard in processor comparisons, one that I Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—A Tale of Two Chips

In 2012, I wrote about how mobile application processors were becoming increasingly popular in embedded systems. Since then, this trend has accelerated, fueled in part by low-cost development boards aimed at enabling embedded system developers to evaluate these chips and quickly create prototype products. For embedded systems developers, these boards (some developed by chip suppliers and some from their partners) can seem like a dream come true: they're inexpensive and energy-efficient, and Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—The Memory Bandwidth, Stupid!

"The economy, stupid" was one of the phrases that strategist James Carville hung on a sign in Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign headquarters – a reminder to focus on what's most important. In a similar vein, the reminder "It's the memory bandwidth, stupid" should probably be prominently displayed wherever computer vision software developers work. As I've written about before, it has recently become feasible to implement sophisticated computer vision algorithms on embedded and mobile Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Neural Network Processors: Has Their Time Come?

Lately, neural network algorithms have been gaining prominence in computer vision and other fields where there's a need to extract insights based on ambiguous data. As I wrote last year, classical computer vision algorithms typically attempt to identify objects by first detecting small features, then finding collections of these small features to identify larger features, and then reasoning about these larger features to deduce the presence and location of an object of interest (such as a face Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—What Does Semiconductor Industry Consolidation Mean for Embedded Systems Designers?

The semiconductor industry has been on a head-spinning merger binge lately. NXP is acquiring Freescale. Avago is acquiring Broadcom. Intel is acquiring Altera. Much has been written about the motivations for these mergers, and about the implications for investors in the merged firms. But so far, little has been said publicly about the consequences for customers. For designers of embedded systems, the most obvious result of these mergers is fewer suppliers to choose from. In itself, fewer Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—The Meaning of "Smart"

These days we all have smart phones. Smart watches recently received a big boost with Apple's entry. And there is much talk of smart cities, smart factories, smart homes, smart trash receptacles...there's even a smart pacifier for your baby. I'm starting to feel like the term "smart" is so overused, it's becoming meaningless. And that's had me thinking: What do we mean when we say that a product is "smart"? Obviously, we don't always mean the same thing. But, often, I think the essence of " Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Special-purpose Processors Focus on Computer Vision

It's now very clear that computer vision is becoming a mass-market technology. Modern, practical computer vision (or, "embedded vision," as I prefer to call it) is rapidly becoming essential in cars, for example, where it enables a host of valuable safety features. In smartphones, computer vision enables better photographs and image-based search. And new smart-home devices use vision to perform functions such as messaging you when your kid gets home, or when an unknown person arrives. This is a Read more...