Online video streaming platform Netflix lays off 150 employees to cut back costs as the company witnesses a loss in this subscription base.
Recently, Netflix lost more than 200,000 global subscribers and forecasted another 2 million this period, forcing the company to make the hard decision of laying off its employees. The recent layoffs represent nearly 2% of Netflix’s workforce in the country.
According to sources, more layoffs might soon follow. “Our slowing revenue growth means we also have to slow our cost growth as a company. So sadly, we are letting around 150 employees go today, mostly US-based,” mentioned Netflix in a statement.
The statement further added that these changes are primarily motivated by business demands rather than individual performance, making them particularly difficult because the organization does not want to say goodbye to such wonderful employees.
Last month the company also fired multiple employees who were working on the company’s new fan-focused website, Tudum. Most of the fired employees were hired from reputed organizations over the past few months.
The quote from one of the CEOs is pure doublespeak. They're firing employees to cut down on their spending, and blaming customers sharing passwords as the reason why they're losing money, and not them spending exorbitant amounts on productions. https://t.co/zClJaRUnLQ
— Carolyn Hinds – Petite Possee🇧🇧 (@CarrieCnh12) May 17, 2022
Twitteratis flooded the microblogging platform with their opinion after this news was revealed. A user wrote, “The quote from one of the CEOs is pure doublespeak. They’re firing employees to cut down on their spending, and blaming customers sharing passwords as the reason why they’re losing money, and not them spending exorbitant amounts on productions.”
Moreover, that company’s stock price has dropped more than 70% from its November 2021 intraday high of $700.99. Recently, AI technology and ROI enablement services providing startup Datarobot also laid off nearly 7% of its entire workforce as a step to reduce company costs.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) announces its plans to introduce multiple new-age subjects such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, machine learning (ML), and data science in ICSE and ISC curricula.
This decision has been made to introduce students to these subjects at an early age to help them grow their careers in those fields.
The council signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC), the Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, to design a curriculum for students of 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th standards.
Chief Executive and Secretary of CISCE, Gerry Arathoon, said, “The students will appear in exams with these new subjects in Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) in 2025 and in Indian School Certificate (ISC) in 2026.”
Arathoon further added that the IHFC had provided its expertise to the CISCE to modernize present STEM courses in accordance with the government of India’s New Education Policy.
Earlier, CBSE also introduced similar subjects in its curriculum as part of its reforms to adhere to the country’s new Education Policy and nurture talent at a young age.
“The CISCE has always strived to provide its students with a wide variety of subject choices, catering to their interests and capabilities while also addressing the contemporary requirements. It is with this objective that the CISCE plans to introduce subjects like robotics and AI,” added Arathoon.
As leading institutions are developing the syllabus of these subjects, it can be said with little doubt that the courses will tremendously help students shape their careers in 21st-century technologies.
Ford Motor-backed autonomous driving startup Argo AI starts testing its new fleet of autonomous vehicles without the support of any onboard human driver on the streets of Miami and Austin.
The company had been testing its driverless cars in the cities over the last few years but with mandatory human drivers inside the vehicle to ensure public safety.
Argo AI mentioned that it also plans to commercialize this driverless vehicle service over the coming time. According to an Argo AI spokeswoman, Lyft Inc and Walmart Inc are both testing the technology in pilot programs.
Chief Executive at Argo AI, Bryan Salesky, said, “Argo is first to go driverless in two major American cities, safely operating amongst heavy traffic, pedestrians and bicyclists in the busiest of neighborhoods.”
He further added that they set out to tackle the most difficult miles to drive in many cities from the start, as that is where the density of customer demand is highest and where their autonomy platform is developing the intelligence needed to expand it into a viable business.
Apart from Argo AI, Alphabet’s self-driving technology developing subsidiary Waymo also showcased its new autonomous driving tech in the streets of San Francisco, United States. The demonstrated technology of Waymo allowed the company’s robotaxis to operate autonomously without the need for any human intervention or driver on board.
Argo AI’s driverless operations initially focused on providing employee transportation using an app developed internally. In addition to the United States, Argo AI has also been testing its self-driving technology on the streets of Europe using modified Ford and Volkswagen automobiles.
Similar developments can also be seen in China as Pony.ai received a license in the country to charge fees for its autonomous taxi services.
Google I/O is an annual developer conference held by Google in which the company announces the latest development in its technologies and the launch of new products. Over the past years, Google has introduced several groundbreaking innovations and products in its I/O event, and this year is no less. Technologies starting from language models to smart accessories were introduced in the Google I/O 2022 event. This article will cover all the significant announcements made at the Google I/O 2022 event that you need to know.
LaMDA 2 and AI Test Kitchen
LaMDA 2 (Language Model for Dialog Applications) is the second generation of LaMDA, built on a neural network architecture that Google Research invented and open-sourced in 2017. According to Google, LaMDA 2 is an artificial intelligence system designed for dialogue applications, which can understand millions of topics and generate natural conversations that never repeat generated texts. Moreover, the AI Test Kitchen application can effectively showcase what Google’s new LaMDA 2 can do. The app allows users to interact with and provide feedback on some of Google’s most recent AI technologies. Interested individuals can visit the official website of Google to check out the AI Test Kitchen.
Google offered a detailed presentation about its new Android 13 OS at the Google I/O 2022 event. According to the company, its new OS will come with more Material You personalizations, better security tools, a revised Google Wallet, and others. Moreover, Android 13 will have improved integration capabilities with Chromebooks, smart wearables, TVs, automobiles, and smart home devices. Android 13’s Beta 2 is available and will be officially launched later this year.
Google introduces its new Pixel 6a smartphone during the Google I/O 2022 event. The good news for Indian customers is that their phone is all set to hit the Indian market soon. However, the company is yet to announce the exact launch date for India. The United States variant will feature 6GB RAM, 128GB storage, a 6.1-inch FULL-HD+OLED display, and many new hardware and features. For instance, Google has powered its Pixel 6a device with its Tensor chip and Titan M2 security chip to further increase its privacy and security capabilities. Customers in the United States can start pre-ordering the device on 21st July 2022, which is priced at $449.
Google unveils its new 10-shade skin tone scale named Monk Scale to better identify bias in artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. Google partnered with sociologist Ellis Monk of Harvard University, who studies colorism, to develop and launch the Monk Skin Tone Scale. The researchers found that the new Monk Skin Tone Scale better represents the skin color of the participants in the United States compared to other available skin tone scales in the market. Developers and researchers can share their feedback about Monk Skin Tone Scale to Google from its official website.
Another huge announcement made by Google during the I/O 2022 event is the Pixel Watch. Though the product’s rumors were around the corner for quite some time, Google enthusiasts were still stunned by the watch’s look as the company made it official. The smartwatch will be daring along with its flagship Pixel 7 device later this year and will feature Wear OS 3 and Fitbit integration. However, according to the latest sources, the watch will be powered by an outdated 10nm Exynos chipset, which is a setback for customers who were expecting top-of-the-line specs.
Increased Privacy
Google has introduced a new virtual card system in its Chrome browser with the motive of making online transactions more secure. “If you enroll a virtual card for Autofill, you can keep your actual card number hidden when you check out on merchant websites,” says Google. The feature will drastically help in reducing online sensitive data breaches leading to minimal monitory frauds. A virtual banking card will create its own sets of vital information, such as the card number, expiration date, and CVV, which will be different from that of the physical card. Users will be required to authenticate their identity by sending a verification SMS to their registered phone number using a code verification protocol.
Another major announcement in the Google I/O 2022 event is the launch of Pixel Buds Pro. With this launch, Pixel Buds Pro becomes the first audio product in Google’s portfolio to have active noise cancellation technology. Google said that the earbuds could last up to 7 hours with active noise cancellation turned on. Pixel Buds Pro will be available in four color options, namely Coral, lemongrass, fog, and charcoal.
Improved Google Assistant
Google Assistant will now be able to receive selected commands without the need for users to say, “Ok Google.” This is a massive addition to Google Home’s capabilities as users can easily assign commands like turning off lights or similar things by casually talking to the assistant. The feature named Look and Talk will be available on the company’s Google Nest Hub Max smart home device.
Mr. Royce Thomas, an industry veteran and a senior leader from the global data center, cloud technology and telecommunications industries has joined CtrlS as President and Chief Business Officer (CBO).
He comes with over 30 years of rich experience in global account management, strategic planning, channel development, business development, redefining business models, designing and selling solutions across enterprises and hyperscalers.
Mr. Royce joins CtrlS from Equinix, where he served as Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances and Global Account Management. Earlier, he held senior leadership roles at Level 3 Communications and Sprint.
As President and Chief Business Officer, Mr. Royce will work closely with the board and leadership team to craft the company’s growth vision and strategy for expansion into global markets, enhance the market share, bottom-line and establish CtrlS as a preferred choice of Fortune 500 global multinationals.
Mr. Royce Thomas, said, “I am excited to join CtrlS, Asia’s largest rated-4 hyperscale data center and a preferred choice of Fortune 500 global multinationals. It is my belief that my experience and expertise, when combined with the infrastructure, good-will, innovations, and brand trust enjoyed by CtrlS will pave the way for consolidation of market share across strategic regions around the globe. My passion for serving customers will serve our base and attract new customers, enhance market share, in addition to becoming a preferred service provider among hyperscalers, enterprises, and all mission-critical applications. I am eagerly seeking to meet customers and teammates as we work together to create value for all the stakeholders including employees in my role as President and Chief Business Officer”.
CtrlS is expanding its data center facilities across India rapidly and will be playing a key role in providing edge services across the country and the world. Today, the company is trusted by 60 of the Fortune 500 Global Multinationals including leading brands such as Exxon Mobil, Disney, Daimler Chrysler, Samsung, Sumitomo Corporation, SAP, Deloitte, BMW, Philips, FedEx, Uber, Vodafone, Bloomberg among others. The company is now extending its data center footprint to 5 million square feet powered by 1.2 GW of power.
Mr. Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Founder & CEO, CtrlS Datacenters, said, “Royce is a tall and respected leader in the industry, and I am delighted to welcome him to the CtrlS Family. As a President and Chief Business Officer (CBO), he will play a key role in expanding the CtrlS’ global footprint in strategic regions worldwide, introduce new and innovative service offerings, foster strategic global alliances, and usher in exponential growth for the company. Here’s wishing Royce the very best as he takes on the mantle to lead the team to greater heights with vision, vigor and new energy.”
Mr. Royce Thomas has a unique passion for India having traveled extensively in his early twenties and has kept abreast with the cultural, economic, and social developments over the last few decades. He is now eagerly looking forward to enabling digital transformation of business in the country.
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin, announces the launch of new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered panic buttons in buses of the capital city Chennai as a step to improve the safety of women.
போக்குவரத்துத் துறை சார்பில் பொது மக்களின் பாதுகாப்பான பயணத்திற்காக நிர்பயா பாதுகாப்பான நகரத் திட்டத்தின் கீழ், 2500 மாநகர போக்குவரத்துக் கழக பேருந்துகளில் சிசிடிவி கேமராக்கள் மற்றும் அவசர பொத்தான்கள் பொருத்தும் பணியின் முதற்கட்டமாக 500 பேருந்துகளில்
The AI-enabled panic button will also be integrated with the CCTV surveillance system and will be initially deployed in 500 buses across the capital city.
PTI reported that this new development is part of the state transportation department’s Nirbhaya safe city project and will be integrated into nearly 2500 buses on a phase-wise basis.
The newly announced system will have four panic buttons, AI-enabled Mobile Network Video Recorder (MNVR), and three cameras each. The MNVR is linked to a cloud-based control center via a 4G GSM SIM service.
Apart from providing safety to women, this AI-powered system can also be used by law enforcement agencies to track missing people, identify criminals, and perform other related tasks to maintain public order.
After its deployment, female travelers will be able to push the panic button to record the entire episode if they are inconvenienced, uncomfortable, or threatened by other passengers. Once activated, the system will automatically send an alert to the transportation and police authorities with a video recording of the bus.
Along with CM Stalin, Tamil Nadu Transport Minister SS Sivasankar was also present when the state secretariat launched the project. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has brought 31 bus depots and 35 bus terminuses under surveillance, an official press release from the Tamil Nadu government mentioned.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar partners with leading engineering research and development services company L&T Technology to work on areas like artificial intelligence (AI) and mechatronics.
According to the latest development, L&T Technology has started talks with IIT Gandhinagar to incubate and offer cutting-edge solutions in AI and Mechatronics. L&T Technology and IIT Gandhinagar leadership teams discussed plans to open new labs, develop collaborative projects, and engage students through internships.
Moreover, they also plan to conduct several workshops and seminars in Smart Manufacturing, Robotics, Biomechatronics, and ‘intelligent’ Products and Systems as a part of this partnership.
CEO and Managing Director of L&T Technology, Amit Chadha, said, “The interdisciplinary nature of AI in Engineering, Mechatronics and Robotics presents great opportunities for LTTS and our global clients in this fast-changing world. Our in-depth domain experience and multi-vertical expertise across the engineering value chain holds the key to building a scalable future.”
He also mentioned that he feels that the proposed industry-academic engagement with a best-in-class scientific institution like IIT-Gandhinagar will foster cutting-edge research and help to develop a digitally proficient workforce.
Aside from this collaboration, IIT Gandhinagar researchers have also developed a comprehensive framework for reducing damage to power transmission infrastructure in coastal areas during storms.
Officiating Director at IIT Gandhinagar, Prof Amit Prashant, said, “Considering the increasing scope and relevance of integration of AI, Mechatronics, and Robotics, we at IITGN have been advancing research in the field and contributing towards the development of an AI ecosystem.”
He further added that the initiation of talks with an organization like LTTS would be a step toward developing qualified individuals with knowledge and practical training, along with benefiting academia by providing opportunities to work on relevant technologies.
Less than a month ago, autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai had become the first autonomous driving company in the world to receive a commercial taxi license in China. This allowed it to operate and charge for autonomous ride-hail in Guangzhou, which requires a safety operator to be in the driver’s seat. The Toyota-backed robotaxi service Pony.ai started running 100 driverless vehicles in Guangzhou’s Nansha area this month, with plans to extend to other parts of the city later. In November, the Chinese startup was granted permission to operate 67 vehicles in Beijing, but not a license.
Following this breakthrough, Pony.ai and the Chinese tech behemoth Baidu were granted licenses to operate autonomous ride-hailing services to the public on Beijing’s open roads. The Beijing High-Level Automated Driving allowed Baidu to deploy ten driverless vehicles in Beijing, adding to the company’s current Apollo Go fleet of around 100 cars in the capital city.
Apollo Go users could book a ride using the app from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., while Pony customers can book a ride using the PonyPilot+ app from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Though many cities in China have authorized autonomous vehicle manufacturers to test self-driving vehicles without a human safety operator in the driver’s seat, this is the first time a fully driverless service has been approved. But unlike California’s driverless permits, which require no human in the car aside from the passenger, Beijing’s permit requires the companies to have a safety operator in the front passenger seat. This is still a huge chapter for the automobile industry in China, as the nation has come a long way since 2016, when the nascent yet ambitious startups started venturing into the autonomous vehicles sector.
China has the potential to become the top market for self-driving cars in the world. According to several studies, driverless vehicles might eventually take over the majority of the Chinese automobile sector. In general, these vehicles are projected to transfer a significant portion of the mobility market value away from products (vehicle purchases) and towards auto-vehicular services. The Mandarin nation is slowly inching towards mass deployment of SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Level 4 in the future while connecting up sectors such as automotive, transportation, software, hardware, and data services.
China overtook the United States as the world’s largest and most significant automobile market in 2009, accounting for roughly 70% more than the US. The United States manufactured 11,314,705 automobiles in 2018. China made 27,809,196 units. The world’s third-biggest automaker, Japan, produced 9,728,528 automobiles, while India came in fourth with 5,174,645, implying that China manufactured more vehicles than Japan, India, and the United States combined. This put undue strain on the country’s transportation system, increasing traffic congestion and pollution. As a result, autonomous cars are being offered as a possible solution to some of these infrastructural constraints.
So far, the autonomous vehicle industry in China is moving ahead strongly, as a new generation of challengers and established manufacturers are continuing to entice substantial investor interest without being much affected by the pandemic jolt.
The self-driving vehicle industry in China is filled with hope; a new generation of upstarts is attracting substantial investor interest, and major technology corporations and conventional automakers alike are coming on board. At the same time, the Chinese government is pushing this sector with favorable policies.
According to Capgemini statistics, China’s market preference for autonomous driving is 60%, far greater than the remainder of the world, suggesting China’s adoption of new technology like autonomous driving. This also implies that while Americans are becoming warier about autonomous vehicles, Chinese citizens are becoming more open-minded. Apart from readiness and customer demand, there are many driving factors that are pushing for this change.
The Chinese government is proactively encouraging the sector through regulatory incentives and development efforts to ensure that China and Chinese enterprises will be leading the helm if autonomous driving takes off. For instance, the State Council announced the national strategy plan Made in China 2025 in 2015 to transform and upgrade China’s manufacturing industry. One of the plan’s objectives has been the development of intelligent equipment and goods, including the study and commercialization of self-driving automobiles. In 2017, China issued a number of major legislation and regulations on intelligent cars as part of the Made in China 2025 strategy, including the National Road Testing Guideline.
In addition, new regulations help to legitimize the business and standardize its products, establishing a more defined legal framework within which both operators and investors may operate. Last September, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration joined hands to release the first national guidelines for grading autonomous driving, which would take effect in March this year and serve as a benchmark for automakers developing the future technology. The Chinese categorization is more precise and explicit than the SAE definition, which is a little vague because it defines L2 as “partial automated driving” and L4 as “high-level automated driving.”
The L0, L1, and L2 levels in China require the driver and the autonomous driving system to collaborate on recognizing and responding to objects and events, compared to the SAE version that requires drivers to do these functions. Since it could constantly handle all dynamic driving activities within its planned operating circumstances, L3 is called Conditionally Automated Driving. At L4, which stands for highly automated driving, the vehicle can take steps to lessen the danger of an accident if the driving automation system fails to conduct the required tasks. Finally, L5 is a completely autonomous vehicle. Here, the system has no operational design range and can handle all dynamic driving functions continuously under any driving situation. In situations, when the driving automation system can no longer execute dynamic driving duties, it automatically takes steps to lower the vehicle’s accident risk to a safe level.
Earlier, the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress published the Draft for Comments of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Regulations on the Administration of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles (the “Shenzhen Draft Regulations”) on its website for the public comment on March 23, 2021. The move highlights that Shenzhen is eyeing to bag the title of first Chinese city to commercialize self-driving vehicles. These regulations cover the whole spectrum of autonomous vehicle development, including road testing, access registration, usage management, road transport, traffic accidents, accidents, violation handling, and legal liability. Shenzhen is definitely competing to be the first Chinese city to commercialize driverless vehicles.
On the following day, the Ministry of Public Security of China announced the Draft Proposed Amendments to the Road Traffic Safety Law also called the MPS Proposed Amendments. The proposed amendments to the MPS emphasize the requirements for road testing and access by cars with autonomous driving capabilities, as well as the allocation of accountability for traffic offenses and accidents. It’s the first time that China has suggested autonomous vehicle regulation.
On the investors’ front, the pandemic accelerated the spending and funding on autonomous vehicles as they proved resourceful in delivering medical supplies and food to healthcare professionals and the general public, amid following social distancing protocols. It also helped in disinfecting hospitals and public surfaces to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Furthermore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a considerable number of individuals were considering giving up their cars for environmental concerns and adopting alternate modes of transportation. For example, Baidu’s autonomous vehicle platform, Apollo, collaborated with Neolix, a local self-driving company, to transport meals and supplies to Beijing Haidian Hospital. Together they offered daily meal delivery to over 100 frontline staff members who were nursing a rising patient population. Apollo and Neolix also used autonomous vehicles to sanitize all roadways on Shanghai Zhangjiang Artificial Intelligence Island on a regular basis. Apollo had also made its low-speed driverless micro-car kits and autonomous driving cloud services accessible to enterprises focused on combating Covid-19 at free of cost.
Analysts consider Baidu’s recent ventures in self-driving vehicles as a future growth driver for the firm as well as the industry as a whole. Consider Baidu’s announcement last year that it will team up with state-owned carmaker BAIC Group to manufacture 1,000 autonomous cars over the next three years and eventually launch a robotaxi service across China.
The Apollo Moon vehicles will be built under BAIC’s ARCFOX electric vehicle brand, with Baidu providing autonomous driving technologies and software.
The above instances also highlight several other factors that are playing an instrumental role in the expansion and growth of the autonomous vehicle industry in China. Industry analysts estimate that mainstream commercialization of autonomous driving systems without a safety driver would take at least a decade. Though the rollout of commercial autonomous vehicles will most likely be at a modest pace, it is already happening region-by-region (Shenzhen, Beijing, etc.) in specialized modes of transportation (Robo-taxis, driverless trucks, etc.) with huge variances in availability across China. Furthermore, COVID-19 has bolstered funding in continuing the R&D of these vehicles and fostered greater collaboration in this area for a variety of applications.
At the same time, Chinese self-driving car businesses are expanding beyond their own country. For example, Guangzhou-based WeRide and Shenzhen-based AutoX have the testing permits for both driven and autonomous testing in California as of November 2021.
While government regulations, consumer attitudes, increased investment, and other factors are all contributing to China being a worldwide leader in autonomous vehicles, there are some caveats.
China’s dependence on foreign chip manufacturers, in the midst of the semiconductor industry crisis can be a fatal price to pay. As a result, given the emergence of self-driving vehicles that demand increasingly complex AI processors, several Chinese manufacturers are turning to the domestic market in semiconductor development and production to protect themselves from future shortages like the current one. Last year, Beijing-based chipmaker Horizon Robotics revealed the Journey 5, an auto-grade processor with up to 128 trillion operations per second of AI computational capacity for L4, or level 4, autonomous driving.
The necessity for truly autonomous technology to demonstrate that it can outperform people, also demands adjusting to local driving styles, changing traffic and terrain conditions, and legislation. Regulations on autonomous cars might vary significantly between provinces, even within the same city. If a startup receives permission to operate a fully autonomous trial in one place isn’t necessarily more technically sound than its competitors. It could indicate the local regulator has relaxed rules to support self-driving trials and market.
Compliance, security & productivity solutions provider AGAT launches its new AI sentiment analysis tool for chats and meetings in Microsoft Teams and Webex.
AGAT’s patented sentiment analysis AI engine, specializing in transcript and chat, has been trained to recognize certain emotions such as pleasure, happiness, surprise, anger, disgust, and sadness.
Sentiment analysis tools can be very effective for organizations as the reports generated by them can be used to compare performance and encourage everyone to improve.
Moreover, sentiment analysis can also help companies identify negative employee-client interactions, allowing them to improve.
According to the company, its sentiment analysis tool comes with a robust artificial intelligence engine that analyses customer feedback and uncovers underlying thoughts about the company. It can be used to analyze text or voice to understand interactions and determine required future actions.
CEO of AGAT Software, Yoav Crombie, said, “AGAT’s Sentiment analysis engine is built specifically to enhance customer satisfaction and employee experience. Sentiment analysis leverages Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning to extract sentimental insights from your company data, whether in text or voice format.”
The company mentioned that some sample reports that the sentiment analysis system generates are identifying –
Most negative and positive meetings.
Most negative and positive chats.
Most negative and positive employees.
Employee relationship with all others.
Trend changes in communication in the above categories.
Interested users can visit the official website of AGAT Software to get a free trial of its new AI sentiment analysis tool.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) selects object data infrastructure provider OStream’s Percept for Vision AI solution to secure ports across the country.
According to DoD, the solution will be deployed to overcome multiple challenges such as workflow problems and others.
The DoD can use Percept’s AI Hub to connect any camera to more than 300 artificial intelligence services, resulting in real-time insights that are stored in a consolidated and private data lake.
Real-time analytics for the movement and orchestration of people, vehicles, and cargo are among the use cases for US ports.
“Vision AI is a strategic initiative at many sites, including the Port of Hueneme. OStream has proven that their data infrastructure products facilitate smooth integration of cameras to hundreds of different leading AI providers,” said Alan Jaeger from the Department of the Navy.
As backend providers for object detection, tracking, and correlation, several Percept AI service partners were chosen. A funded deployment at the Port of Hueneme includes OStream’s Percept object data technology along with its wire-free 1KM range object cameras.
Los Angeles-based self-funded firm OStream is a software and device company founded with the aim of solving deployment issues that prevent computer vision and AI from being widely used. The founders of OStream have 20 years of experience in IoT, video, streaming media, and artificial intelligence.
“Percept can integrate any camera with an entire ecosystem of AI leaders, allowing groups such as the DoD to choose the very best providers without forklifting their existing cameras,” said CEO of OStream, Kerry Shih.
Kerry also mentioned that Vision AI is difficult to integrate from a system and infrastructure perspective, and they are pleased that Percept can fill this role for the DoD.
