Embedded Vision Insights: August 21, 2012 Edition

Dear Colleague,

With less than a month to go until the September 19 Embedded Vision Summit in Boston, Massachusetts, the technical program is shaping up very nicely. The Summit will feature over a dozen technical presentations focused on providing practical know-how for engineers interested in incorporating vision capabilities into their products. Presentations will cover embedded vision applications, algorithms, processors, image sensors, and tools and design techniques. Check out the event page on the Alliance website for more details, and register right away, as space is limited and seats are filling up!

Speaking of registrations, one week prior to the Summit, Design News Magazine will deliver a free five-session tutorial series called "Fundamentals of Embedded Computer Vision: Creating Machines That See", September 10-14 at 2PM ET (11AM PT) each day. The content presenters will be Jeff Bier, Embedded Vision Alliance founder, and Eric Gregori, BDTI senior software engineer. Bier and Gregori will begin with an introductory overview, followed by more in-depth details on image sensors, processors, algorithms, tools, and the OpenCV software library. See the first news item listing in this newsletter for more information, including registration links.

Also one week ahead of the Summit, on September 12 and 13 to be exact, Alliance Platinum member IMS Research will present the European edition of the Touch-Gesture-Motion Conference, in London. Vision-based gesture- and motion-related technologies will be particularly showcased on day 2 of the event. For example, Stephane Gervais-Ducouret, sensor product line director at Alliance member Freescale, will deliver the conference keynote that morning. The keynote will be followed by a technical session that includes presentations from Alliance members eyeSight and PointGrab. And the Alliance will be officially represented by Apical's founder and CEO, Michael Tusch. Again, see the news section of this newsletter for a writeup containing additional details, including detailed agenda and registration page links.

Last but not least, there's a substantial amount of new video content recently published on the website that's sourced from last month's Member Summit: the market and technology trends presentations, for example, along with various product demonstrations. Also, make sure you check out my interview with IMS Research's senior analyst and machine vision expert, John Morse, who will be delivering the market trends presentation at the upcoming December Member Summit. Thank you as always for your support of the Alliance, and for your interest in and contributions to embedded vision technologies, products and applications. I welcome your feedback at any time on how we can do a better job of addressing your needs.

Brian Dipert
Editor-In-Chief, Embedded Vision Alliance

July 2012 Embedded Vision Alliance Member Summit Technology Trends Presentation on OpenCL
OpenCL is an emerging SDK (software development kit) that targets the problem of developing on heterogeneous multi-core platforms. Previously confined purely to the world of GPGPU (general-purpose computing on graphics processor units), it has recently also achieved acceptance on other hardware platforms, including fixed-function accelerators and even FPGAs. In this talk at the July 2012 Embedded Vision Alliance Member Summit, BDTI Senior Engineer Shehrzad Qureshi provides a high-level overflow of where OpenCL came from, where it is now, where it is going, and some of the details behind programming OpenCL kernels. Three computer vision-tailored OpenCL kernels are specifically discussed.

videantis Product Demonstration at the July 2012 Embedded Vision Alliance Member Summit
Mark Kulaczewski, co-founder and Vice President of System Integration, demonstrates how the company's IP cores can optimize H.264 video compression efficiency and quality by identifying faces and other important information within each frame whose details must be preserved, at the July 2012 Embedded Vision Alliance Member Summit.

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Building Machines That See: Finding Edges in Images
In this article, the second in a series, we introduce edge detection, one of the fundamental techniques of computer vision. Like many aspects of computer vision, edge detection sounds simple but turns out to be complex. We explore some of the common challenges and pitfalls associated with edge detection, and present techniques for addressing them. Then, after explaining edge detection from an algorithmic perspective, we show how to use OpenCV, a free open-source computer vision software component library, to quickly implement application software incorporating edge detection. More

Is Vision the Next-Gen Must-Have User Interface?
IMS Research recently issued a press release questioning if Apple and the iPad are falling behind competitors in user interface technologies. The point of the research company’s commentary, to paraphrase, was: Sure, Apple has changed the game by bringing touch-screen interaction to the masses; but is that all? Shouldn’t Apple be also embracing embedded vision technologies in the next product release? The industry still wants to know: Where will the battle lines be drawn for the next-generation user interface – beyond touch.  Will it be gesture, motion, or voice? What about mental telepathy? A growing number of FPGA, DSP and processor companies are now betting the future on embedded vision. More

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An Upcoming Online Tutorial Series, Presented by BDTI, the Embedded Vision Alliance and Design News

IMS Research's Touch Gesture Motion EMEA: Your Embedded Vision Conference Mention for Today

Google's Vision for Embedded Vision: Numerous Impressive Technology and Product Implementations

Vision-Based Pulse Rate (and Other) Measurement: MIT Takes A Stab At It

TV-Centric Videoconferencing: A Slow Start, but It's Still Coming

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