Intel acquires Movidius to let connected devices ‘see’

New York, Sep 6 (IANS) In its bid to play a leading role in giving human-like sight to the 50 billion connected devices that are projected by 2020, Intel has acquired San Mateo-headquartered computer vision hardware-maker Movidius.

"I'm excited to announce our pending acquisition of Movidius. With Movidius, Intel gains low-power, high-performance SoC (System on a Chip) platforms for accelerating computer vision applications," Josh Walden, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's New Technology Group said in a statement.

Movidius is working with customers like Google and Lenovo to give sight to smart devices including drones, security cameras, AR/VR headsets and more.

"Our leading VPU (Vision Processing Unit) platform for on-device vision processing combined with Intel's industry leading depth sensing solution (Intel RealSense Technology) is a winning combination for autonomous machines that can see in 3D," Movidius CEO Remi El-Ouazzane said in a separate statement.

Computer vision enables machines to visually process and understand their surroundings.

Upon integration, computer vision enables navigation and mapping, collision avoidance, tracking, object recognition, inspection analytics and more -- capabilities that are extremely compelling in emerging markets, Intel said.

"We see massive potential for Movidius to accelerate our initiatives in new and emerging technologies," Walden said.

The ability to track, navigate, map and recognise both scenes and objects using Movidius' low-power and high-performance SoCs opens opportunities in areas where heat, battery life and form factors are key.

"Specifically, we will look to deploy the technology across our efforts in augmented, virtual and merged reality (AR/VR/MR), drones, robotics, digital security cameras and beyond," Walden noted.

Other details of the transaction have not yet been made public.