Rapid Imaging and Perceptual Labs Collaboration Selected As Finalist In NVIDIA Developer Challenge
[Middleton, WI] – NVIDIA Corporation, a world-leader in Artificial Intelligence computing, has recognized Rapid Imaging Technologies and Perceptual Labs’ collaborative development of “On-UAV Realtime Detection of Storm Damage,” a product that couples real-time artificial intelligence with augmented reality, as a finalist in NVIDIA’s Jetson Developer Challenge, a global competition searching for the best uses of artificial intelligence on embedded computing devices. The collaborative project between Rapid Imaging and Perceptual Labs is one of three finalists in the competition that included 114 entries and almost 2,400 participants from 80 countries. The overall winner will be announced at GTC Silicon Valley, the premier AI and Deep Learning Conference, on March 29th.
“NVIDIA is a world-leader in AI computing and having our technology recognized by their machine learning team is a significant accomplishment,” said David Geisler, CEO at Rapid Imaging. “NVIDIA is the chip-maker behind many of the AI initiatives across multiple markets including autonomous driving, smart cities, health care, big data, virtual reality and high-performance computing – so having our technology running on their hardware connects us to many markets.”
As announced in February, Rapid Imaging, a leading Augmented Reality provider to both governmental and commercial clients, secured a strategic partnership with Middleton, WI-based Perceptual Labs, a world-leading artificial intelligence (“AI”) company focused on providing on-device software frameworks based on machine learning and convolutional neural networks. The technology collaboration for the NVIDIA Challenge incorporated aspects of both companies’ core competencies. “On-UAV Realtime Detection of Storm Damage” allows an airborne vehicle to collect video analytics by allowing an artificial intelligence network to identify damaged structures in a scene and then georeference the structure by using SmartCam3D, Rapid Imaging’s proprietary technology that was developed for NASA and is currently being used by the US Military.
“Having the ability to recognize objects in a scene and accurately locate them from a live video feed is a powerful technology,” said Geisler, “the use of this new technology is applicable to many markets and we think NVIDIA recognized the scalability of this solution.”
Representatives from Rapid Imaging and Perceptual Labs will travel to GTC Silicon Valley at the end of March to take part in the premier AI technology conference. NVIDIA is expecting over 8,000 attendees, among them, representatives from many of the largest technology companies in the world. NVIDIA’s core technology, the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), is currently used in the machine-learning processes used by companies like Facebook and Google, most self-driving car companies, including Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, Toyota and Uber, and many other companies from a variety of industries.
Rapid Imaging and Perceptual Labs are excited for the opportunity and look forward to the final results of the NVIDIA Jetson Developer Challenge on March 29th at GTC Silicon Valley.