Waterloo Engineering researchers Alexander Wong and Mohammad Javad Shafiee are developing deep-learning artificial intelligence (AI) software that would allow devices to operate independent of the Internet and cloud computing.
The technology is compact enough to fit on mobile computer chips for use in everything from smartphones to industrial robots.
“We feel this has enormous potential,” says Wong, a systems design engineering professor and co-director of the Vision and Image Processing (VIP) Research Group. “This could be an enabler in many fields where people are struggling to get deep-learning AI in an operational form.”
The use of untethered deep-learning AI could lead to much lower data processing and transmission costs, greater privacy and use in areas where existing technology is impractical due to expense or other factors.
Other potential applications range from use in low-cost drones and smart grids, to surveillance cameras and manufacturing plants, where there are significant issues around streaming sensitive or proprietary data to the cloud.
Wong and Shafiee, a systems design engineering research professor, are co-founders of DarwinAI, a company launched to commercialize their AI software.