The number of IoT devices is increasing globally. It is predicted that approximately 30 billion IoT devices (*1) will be connected by 2020, ranging from high-spec and high-end devices such as connected cars to low-end devices with limited power consumption and footprints such as surveillance monitors, small cameras and drones. The market expects AI technology to be combined with the ever-increasing number and types of IoT devices to drive take-up and effectiveness. Demand is expected to be particularly high for the provision of tools to implement AI technology to achieve real-time image recognition on IoT edge devices and manage them in an efficient, secure and safe manner.
In light of this, ACCESS and LeapMind have entered into a collaboration agreement to provide a solution that combines ACCESS' advanced technology for managing edge devices in the cloud remotely with LeapMind's advanced model compression technology. LeapMind's advanced model compression technology equips small computing environments, including low power consumption SoC FPGAs, with deep-learning inference algorithms.
Specifically, the combination of ACCESS' NetFront (TM) EdgeAI with LeapMind's DeLTA-Lite will be provided as a comprehensive solution for building deep-learning models, distributing them to each edge device and updating them, thereby helping companies efficiently deploy and operate IoT solutions. Targeting low-cost, low-power consumption edge devices, this solution makes it possible to implement recognition features on various edge devices such as small cameras that were not previously able to utilize deep learning.
ACCESS and LeapMind will provide this integrated solution to several companies in advance as a pilot test and will offer it officially by the end of the year to factories, warehouses, logistics, security and other fields that are working to equip their numerous IoT devices with AI.
Provide NetFront (TM) EdgeAI, a solution for dramatically reducing processes in the cloud and achieving fast, real-time processing that is not dependent on any network environment, by equipping edge devices with AI features.
Provide DeLTA-Lite, a solution for building embedded deep learning models that does not require programming.
Composed of NetFront (TM) Agent and ACCESS Connect (TM). NetFront Agent is one of the world's smallest managed computing engines and was developed based on the proprietary engine of NetFront (TM) Browser, a well-established product that has been implemented in more than 1.5 billion devices around the world. ACCESS Connect is a one-stop platform that provides backend systems required for developing and operating IoT services.
A web-based solution for building embedded deep learning models that does not require programming. This makes it possible to run deep learning models on palm-sized devices by simply preparing training data and hardware for implementing it. With DeLTA-Lite, you do not need to write a program code, thereby shortening the time to complete the process from building a model to verifying it on hardware.