NEC Ideathon - AI and Image sensor

NEC Corp. invites applicants for it’s first “Ideathon”, organized in collaboration with Sony Semiconductor Solutions, which shall be conducted in Bangalore on 22nd March 2019

At NEC, we embrace the open innovation by integrating technology and expertise to create the ICT enabled society of tomorrow. After successfully conducting multiple hackathons across India, aimed to resolve multiple social issues / challenges in India, we are organizing our first IDEATHON, wherein we invite the best and brightest minds from Bengaluru to ideate, brainstorm and generate fresh solutions to existing challenges in the society.

By combining NEC’s AI capabilities and Sony’s image sensor expertise, we wish to attain brilliant ideas which address current or expected future challenges (solution ideas can be sector or domain agnostic)

NEC is a Japanese corporate & a leader in the integration of ICT and network technologies. NEC provides ICT solutions in multiple sectors, ranging from government/municipalities, telecom/financial operators, manufacturers retail/services providers etc. NEC contributes to the solutions for society through value chain utilization by utilizing IoT & AI. NEC is a pioneer in cutting edge technologies such as human authentication, person/crowd behavior analytics, voice recognition, etc. by utilizing Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning etc.

What is the expectation of this Ideathon?

“How can we solve the existing social problems by using AI technology and high-quality image sensor*(ex. high sensitivity, high frame rate, high dynamic range) ”; and create ideas of solutions.

Intent is to integrate NEC’s innovative AI capabilities with enhancements in image sensor technologies, to obtain new applications/ use cases which were previously unattainable (due to technology or hardware constraints)

Examples of combination of AI and image sensor:

(1) "Walk through Iris Identification" by NEC

(2) "The Visual Microphone: Passive Recovery of Sound from Video" by MIT

Examples of NEC’s AI technologies(Participants may refer to NEC’s current AI technology suite below)

• 1) Human Sensing & Understanding: Realize safety and efficiency by human sensing and understanding on the basis of video analysis and pattern recognition technology by using face recognition, speaker identification, remote gaze estimation, and ear acoustic authentication
• 2) Crowd behavior analytics: Cluster-based analysis of people without identifying individuals which enables highly accurate understanding even in severe congestion
• 3) Profiling across Spatio-Temporal Data: Video search technology that finds a person who appears in a specific pattern from surveillance videos shot at multiple locations
• 4) Medical Image Analysis: Detect cancers and suspected pats in real-time at the inspection, by analyzing medical images using deep learning technology.
• 5) Physiological Information Recognition: By using facial video technology and wearable device, human internal states (emotion, motivation, fatigue) are understood from physiological information (sweat, heart rate)
• 6) Person Re-identification Technology: This technology matches person from the full figure of the person captured in videos and images. It can match up not only people captured face-front into the camera, but also when they are captured from the sides when walking or from the back
• 7) High-speed-camera object recognition technology: This technology combines high-speed cameras with image recognition technology to perform real-time recognition without having to stop the objects, even when moving at high speed. In this interview, two developers discuss the details of this innovative
  
  

Through this ideathon, we aim to identify unique & innovative applications by combining AI with new advancements in camera and image sensor technology (such as high resolution, high sensitivity, high frame rate, high dynamic range)

Sony’s high-quality image sensor

• “STARVIS” (for Security): Back-illuminated pixel technology used in CMOS image sensors for surveillance camera applications. It realizes high picture quality in the visible-light and near-infrared light regions. Detail: https://www.sony-semicon.co.jp/e/products/IS/security/technology.html
• “Pregius“(for Industry): Global shutter pixel technology based on Sony's low-noise CCD structure. It realizes high-speed and high-precision performance. Detail: https://www.sony- semicon.co.jp/e/products/IS/industry/technology.html
• “Polarsens” (Polarization): CMOS Image Sensor pixel technology that has several different angle polarizer formed on-chip. Detail: https://www.sony-semicon.co.jp/e/products/IS/polarization/

Please note: We would prefer participants to utilize NEC’s AI technology and Sony’s image sensors for any new solution ideation generation. If any applicant wishes to use any alternate AI technology (other than NEC's AI technology described on the page), request you to clearly mention this in your idea application submissions.

Other AI technologies:

• Image/video recognition (Detection/identification of object, human, face, motion and etc., Pattern recognition, Semantic segmentation and etc.)
• Image processing (Correction, Enhancement, Visualization, Extraction, Super resolution and etc.)
• Computational photography (Compressed sensing)
• Speech recognition

Please visit the Resource Center for more details

We are looking forward to seeing your innovative idea by using these high technologies!