Tag Archives: AI

Mobility

Notes from the field: making instant movies on the go

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instant movies

Technology was the last subject on my mind when our tourist guide drew up in front of us outside our hotel in Zhiben. Until, that is, my eyes honed in on the impressive rig that he had constructed at the front of the vehicle, including a phone, tablet, dash cam, and even a couple of USB-powered fans.

It didn’t take him long to put it into action either, starting with a couple of phone calls to his brother and a customer as we set off. So much for the tranquil beauty of the mountains and coastline that my wife and I were hoping to enjoy! Our heads were already beginning to throb with all the noise. Continue reading Notes from the field: making instant movies on the go →

Trends

Notes from the field: new technology trends in 2021

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new technology trends in 2021

I’ve been asked by one of our PR agencies to prepare a series of articles for their national media about the new technology trends in 2021. This is generally a task I plan to work on every year but somehow never seem to get around to. Perhaps this year will be different. After all it has already been different in so many other ways thanks to Covid-19.

Ironically, I don’t actually see any major new technology trends emerging in 2021. The key metric to watch will, rather, be the speed with which the now-familiar digital transformation drivers such as Machine Learning, AI, IoT, and Cloud are being adopted. While there has definitely been a great acceleration in remote working this year, for example, we are already seeing growing resistance to the idea that it is some sort of panacea. Continue reading Notes from the field: new technology trends in 2021 →

VIA

5 Ways the VIA Mobile360 AI Forklift Safety Kit Averts Forklift Accidents

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Accidents can easily happen in busy warehouses where it’s impossible for operators to see everything that’s happening around them. With the VIA Mobile360 AI Forklift Safety Kit, you can give your operators an extra set of eyes to identify potential hazards in time to take preventative action. Here are five ways that the kit averts forklift accidents.

Driver Authorization

Basic forklift operation might seem simple enough for a “helpful” colleague to try to use one to help out in busy periods, but the proper and safe operation of a forklift requires professional training and experience with using the equipment. To prevent unauthorized personnel from operating the vehicle, the VIA Mobile360 DMS (Driver Monitoring System) can be set up to authorize the driver using facial recognition technology. This eliminates any chance of someone borrowing an ID card to operate the vehicle and ensures that only authorized personnel can use the equipment. Continue reading 5 Ways the VIA Mobile360 AI Forklift Safety Kit Averts Forklift Accidents →

VIA

Notes from the field: preventing forklift accidents with the VIA Mobile360 AI Forklift Safety Kit

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preventing forklift accidents

We’ve had a very positive response to our recent launch of the VIA Mobile360 AI Forklift Safety Kit. Interest has been strong from customers throughout the world – a clear sign of the high priority that the industry is placing on using new technologies like Computer Vision and AI to preventing accidents involving these indispensable but heavy and unwieldy machines that can weigh up to three times as much as most cars.

According to OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration), forklift accidents result in 85 fatalities, 34,900 serious injuries, and 61,800 minor injuries a year in the US alone. Remarkably, the organization estimates that 70% of all these forklift accidents could have been prevented if more stringent training policies had been implemented. Continue reading Notes from the field: preventing forklift accidents with the VIA Mobile360 AI Forklift Safety Kit →

VIA

Introducing the VIA Mobile360 AI Forklift Safety Kit

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Warehouses and logistics hubs have never been busier as they scramble to meet accelerating demand for home and office deliveries as a result of Covid19. Ensuring the safety of staff amid the relentless pressure to fulfill the avalanche of orders can be a huge challenge. It only takes a momentary loss of concentration by someone inadvertently stepping in front of a forklift to cause a serious injury and thousands of dollars of damage to the goods it’s transporting.

Our aim with the new VIA Mobile360 AI Forklift Safety Kit is to harness the power of Computer Vision and AI technologies is to enable warehouse managers to prevent such accidents from happening. With real-time 360° SVS (Surround View System) video and DMOD (Dynamic Moving Object Detection) capabilities, the kit enables forklift operators to identify potential safety threats such as the unexpected arrival of another person or vehicle within a close range in time to take appropriate action to avert a collision. Continue reading Introducing the VIA Mobile360 AI Forklift Safety Kit →

VIA

notes from the field: taking the AI upgrade path

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AI upgrade path

The single most important benefit of building an AI-enabled system is that you can upgrade its functionality without having to make any modifications to the hardware.

As we recently demonstrated with the VIA Mobile360 AI dash cam, such upgrades can be a lot more substantial than minor software tweaks and bug fixes. In response to customer feedback, we added three major features to the device to boost driver safety and provide fleet managers with deeper insights into vehicle usage. Continue reading notes from the field: taking the AI upgrade path →

VIA

notes from the field: VIA vehicle safety system design philosophy

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vehicle safety system design

One of the core elements of our system design philosophy is to make it as easy and convenient as possible to customize it to meet specific installation requirements. This is particularly important for the highly fragmented embedded market, in which customer needs widely vary across multiple segments and usage environments. It’s one reason why, for example, we still continue to integrate support for legacy I/O standards like RS-232 many years after they have disappeared from mainstream systems and devices.

We also apply the same philosophy to the design our VIA Mobile360 systems. Just like the embedded market, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for vehicle safety. The key is to provide a reliable and flexible system platform that makes it easy to mix and match the specific SVS (Surround View System), ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System), DMS (Driver Monitoring System), and DVR (Digital Video Recording) features required to meet specific deployment requirements. Depending on the size of the vehicle and the particular use cases the customer has in mind, these can vary greatly and require the integration of different cameras, sensors, and other peripherals into the system. Continue reading notes from the field: VIA vehicle safety system design philosophy →

VIA

Notes from the field: key trends in the vehicle safety market

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vehicle safety market

What are the key trends that are driving the development of the vehicle safety market? This is a question we’ve thought a lot about over the past few months as we’ve finalized our plans and roadmaps for 2020 and beyond.

Technology is by far the most important one. Thanks to the massive proliferation of camera sensors in vehicles, we are seeing millions upon millions of new eyes appear on the road that are making it possible to capture ever greater volumes of video data about general road and weather conditions and specific events such as collisions and congestion. Just as significantly, rapid advances in AI are starting to make it possible to sift through the mountains of data collected by these cameras to both prevent possible collisions from happening by issuing alerts to drivers and to find evidence of the causes of accidents that have occurred. Continue reading Notes from the field: key trends in the vehicle safety market →

China

Notes from the field: hotel service bots & porcine facial recognition systems

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porcine facial recognition

I can’t say that I was too surprised to see a couple of robots lurking around the lobby when I first checked into my Beijing hotel. The rate of new technology adoption is much faster in China than other countries.

Even though one of the machines was being touted as a service bot for delivering items to guest’s rooms, I would suspect that the main value of the two devices currently lies as a marketing tool. They certainly attracted enough attention and social media engagement from both domestic and overseas visitors to justify their cost. But I don’t think it will be too long before such machines will be able to carry out more business-critical tasks like checking in guests using facial recognition, booking cars and taxis for them, and securing reservations for VIPs in exclusive restaurants. Of course, some human staff will still be required to add a personal touch to the guest experience – but not quite as many as now I would guess. Continue reading Notes from the field: hotel service bots & porcine facial recognition systems →

Confucius

Leadership lessons from Confucius: beyond the ritual script

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ritual script

朋友死，無所歸，曰：「於我殯。」
When a friend died and there was no one to take care of his funeral, he said: “Let me look after it.”

Ritual is a form of automation. It provides you with the script and stage directions to follow when carrying out interpersonal interactions such as meeting another person or attending an event or religious ceremony. Memorizing and internalizing these conventions enables you to get through your day much more smoothly because you don’t have to think about how to behave or what to say in most common situations. In most cultures, for example, when you meet someone for the first time, you automatically shake their hand. Continue reading Leadership lessons from Confucius: beyond the ritual script →