Artificial intelligence is integrating into our daily lives more each day. Robot-assisted surgeries, detecting fraud, and administrative workflow are just a few examples. Mike Philpott, Partner Sales Development Manager at Intel, and Natalia Simanovsky, Head of Partnerships at CVEDIA, discussed AI applications and the two companies' partnership.

Among businesses hoping to use AI, there is a massive shortage of professionals in the field. Finding people with the proper data science and machine learning skills is incredibly challenging. CVEDIA is an AI solutions provider. “We provide video analytics that are all based on computer, mainly computer vision and then some other non-AI components. What we basically do, or the value we derive for our customers, we help improve their products already in the field,” said Simanovsky. Customers typically come to CVEDIA for help amending or updating a solution. They usually have problems with their product, which may have AI in them already or could be improved with AI. CVEDIA enhances the performance of the features.

“We’ve been working together for six to nine months. One of the solutions that springs to my mind is on the smart city side of things,” said Philpott. A recent Intel and CVEDIA project is improving cameras at thousands of intersections. The cameras are mainly in the US, with some in the UK and Europe.  The cameras control traffic flow, triggering appropriate light changes and pedestrian crossings. Initially, the cameras used classical machine vision, so there was plenty of room for improvement. The solution created by Intel and CVEDIA offers more accurate and nuanced solutions, including 3D bounding boxes. It ultimately leads to more robust insight, broader operations, and applications. “Now their solution works in the nighttime as well as the daytime,” said Simanovsky.

CVEDIA is consistently improving upon clients’ solutions as an initial inquiry and helping them grow and expand offerings. The relationships are ever evolving. “Internally, we call it an ‘improve and expand switch.’ We improve their current solution, and then once we have their trust, they come back, and it’s time to think of next-generation features. Which then keeps them in an incumbent position in the market,” said Simanovsky. “It shows just how exciting the world of AI is,” said Philpott.

Listen to the entire episode for more use cases from the Intel and CVEDIA partnership. Follow Simanovsky and Philpott on LinkedIn to keep up with the latest innovations from the partnership. Explore the suite of Intel’s AI solutions here. Subscribe to this series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts to hear more from Intel’s Optimising the Future.

Streaming content is reaching new heights daily. Regardless of the device being used, video streaming has grown significantly since the onset of the pandemic and shows no signs of slowing down. In the U.S. alone, Streaming represented a record 34.8% share of total television consumption, while cable and broadcast came in at 34.4% and 21.6%, respectively. Streaming usage has surpassed that of broadcast before, but this is the first time it has also exceeded cable viewing (Nielsen).”

Mike Philpott, Partner Sales Development Manager at Intel Corporation and host of Optimising the Future podcast, works with AI businesses to help them work more closely with Intel to optimise solutions to work as efficiently as possible. Sergio Grce, CEO at Isize, sat down with Philpott to discuss the collaboration between the two companies and talk about the game-changing work Isize is doing in the streaming world.

“Isize is a deep tech company that specialises in deep learning for efficient, intelligent and sustainable reader delivery. Our patented technologies are powered by the latest AI innovations to enable our customers to reach more users, provide a better user experience, and reduce the financial and sustainability cost and burden that is associated with this video streaming demand,” explained Grce.

Isize products integrate easily with existing products, reduce latency, and enhance video quality; and the products support the company’s dedication to substantially reducing bandwidth and energy requirements while reducing costs for anyone streaming video.

Grce discussed one of the company’s proprietary products – BitSave. “BitSave is able to reduce bitrate requirements for a given quality level by 10% to 25% versus that encoder. When aiming for high-quality conversational services (MOS>4.5 out of 5.0) BitSave allows for up to 53% bitrate reduction at no quality compromise in comparison to leading AVC, HEVC, AV1 and VVC encoders (Isize).

This speaks to one of the company’s goals – to reduce energy consumption as well as the environmental impact of video streaming which aligns with Intel’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint worldwide. In addition to being a chip and component brand that manufactures CPUs, Intel works with software companies to innovative solutions to software challenges.

Isize has worked with Intel since 2019, “to optimise our technology and algorithms for all of the scalable Intel CPUs and we continue to work with the Intel team to optimise the up and coming CPUs that are going to be sold and used… by the companies streaming videos,” explained Grce.

As the global digital footprint continues to grow, privacy and security concerns grow with it. For Cris Pikes, CEO of Image Analyzer, this could not be a truer statement. Pikes sits down with host Mike Philpott, Partner Sales Development Manager for AI - Intel UK, to discuss the important value AI has in the current and future digital marketplace.

Co-founded in 2004, Image Analyzer was originally built as a command-line scanner. While this version didn’t stay online, the company blossomed from its idea. Version 4 of their software introduced further concepts in the arena, greatly improving on false positives and false negatives as well as the accuracy of the system. Pikes says as AI grew to be more commonplace back in 2017, seeds sprouted and “the tools really…became available.”

Now on Version 8 of the technology, Pikes has helped increase Image Analyzer’s vast portfolio to over 19 categories.

“Lots of different things, lots of different use cases,” Pikes notes. “We’ve got a forensics module including DLP [digital light processing for] personally identifiable information.” This and many other technologies are in the works, which will soon be unveiled.

Pikes highlights one example of a past use case of the technology that the U.S. justice system implemented to help them identify illegal drug-drop plane tail wings. With government policies changing rapidly, this AI informed technology is being used more frequently than ever and is only set to grow.

Digital privacy and security are now top issues for governments and individuals. This new cohesive marketplace allows Image Analyzer to increase their operability over at least the next two to three years. “There is a lot of interest in this market, which is more around what it is to be human online,” Pikes says. While cybersecurity helps protect data and systems, other systems need more protection, including Zoom and Teams video calls. Pikes exclaims, “We’re even able to see the next jump — it’s the Metaverse.”

Using AI, the technology could even have the potential to help prevent mass shootings by identifying the weapon and alerting authorities as soon as the image is analysed.

In working with Intel and utilising ready-made solutions like OpenVINO, Image Analyzer can quickly and efficiently deploy the technology at speed and in the correct format onto Intel hardware for OEM channels. The future is bright for AI use in technology. As the global digital footprint continues to expand, companies will continue to turn to AI to deploy smart solutions.

To learn more about the future role of AI, connect with Cris Pikes and Mike Philpott on LinkedIn.

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Like in many industries today, artificial intelligence (AI) is shaking up everyday, normal life. For the food service industry in particular, it’s already seen in the data collection and supply chain optimisation, and now a new vendor is looking to optimise the checkout process, too. Intel’s Mike Philpott, Partner Sales Development Manager and host of Optimising the Future podcast, spoke with Sergii Khomenko, co-founder of Autocanteen, about how the organisation’s technology is transforming restaurant, catering, and canteen operations by providing a contactless self-checkout solution through the utilisation of AI.

Khomenko explained where the inspiration for Autocanteen came from, and like every good story, it came from a common, everyday experience. While at a lunch, Khomenko witnessed a cashier performing very monotonous work to process payments. The checkout procedure was time consuming and manual, which meant the queue for getting customers through was lengthy and slow. As one can imagine, nobody likes waiting in a line, especially when they are hungry and ready to eat, so losing customers due to time or dissatisfaction is an issue. Because of this experience and observation, Khomenko and his colleagues began wondering if automation was an option for the canteen checkout process.

Using computer vision and machine learning, Autocanteen created an innovative checkout process that is capable of processing an order and checking out a guest in a mere 10 seconds — significantly shortening the queue, increasing checkout throughput, decreasing food waste, and ultimately leading to a higher revenue stream. However, the road to making these big outcomes in the food service industry did not quite go according to plan… at first.

“By the time we had our product production-ready, the world faced the COVID pandemic, and at that time, hospitality was heavily affected with many sites closed and employees had to requalify,” Khomenko explains. “Fast forward a year or two, businesses reopened, so restaurants reopened, cafeterias, canteens, and it was challenging for these businesses to hire staff again.” This is where Autocanteen was able to showcase the many benefits of its ground-breaking technology and solve a big gap in the food service industry by extending capabilities through self-service, reducing manhours needed to run an establishment, eliminating queues, and reducing waste.

To discover more about Autocanteen’s AI solution, connect with Sergii Khomenko on LinkedIn or visit Autocanteen’s website.

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