Tag: Mobileye

OM in the News: Computer Vision Systems and the Start Up Nation

A Mobileye autonomous driving vehicle at the company’s HQ in Jerusalem

Israel (famously known as the Start Up Nation after the best-selling book by that title) has become a leader in one of the most promising frontiers in the technology world: computer vision. An area that has come of age this decade, it covers applications across dozens of industries that have one thing in common: the need for computers to figure out what their cameras are seeing, and the need for those computers to tell them what to do next.

Israel’s biggest success story is Mobileye, which uses a dozen cheap cameras to see the traffic around autonomous cars and then guides them through traffic. In 2017, Intel paid $15.3 billion to acquire the technology.

“Computer vision is the connecting thread between some of Israel’s most valuable and promising tech companies,” writes The Financial Times (Nov. 20, 2018). And unlike Israel’s traditional strengths— cyber security and mapping (Waze is another Israeli invention) — computer vision slides into a broad range of different civilian industries, spawning companies in agriculture, medicine, sports, self-driving cars, the diamond industry and even shopping. This lucrative field has benefited from a large pool of engineers and entrepreneurs trained for that very task in the Israeli military, where they fine-tuned computer algorithms to digest millions of pieces of surveillance.

Having built massive databases — from close-ups of farm insects to medical scans to traffic data — has given Israeli companies a valuable head start over other nations. And in an industry where every new image teaches the algorithm something useful, that has made catching up difficult. It has also created opportunities in unexpected sectors. Physimax uses a bank of cameras to analyze the posture of athletes, then suggests changes to their exercise routines and techniques. It is already being used by the US military and professional basketball and football teams. Zebra Medical uses AI to scan millions of MRIs from around the world, guiding radiologists to the slightest sign of disease. Trigo automates the checkout in grocery stores. Nexar analyses traffic and collision data from driver’s smartphones.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. Why are computer vision systems important to OM?

2.  Provide an example not discussed in the article of how the systems can be used in business.

 

 

OM in the News: Intel, Mobileye, and Autonomous Cars

In the world of driverless cars, household names like Google and Uber have raced ahead of rivals, building test vehicles and starting trials on city streets. “But when it comes to what is under the hood, an array of lesser-known companies will most likely supply the technology required to bring driverless cars to the masses,” writes The New York Times (March 14, 2017). And in a $15.3 billion deal to acquire the Israeli firm Mobileye, Intel just moved to corner the market on how much of that technology is developed. Jerusalem-based Mobileye makes sensors and cameras for these vehicles.

Intel estimates the market for autonomous-driving systems, services and data will reach $70 billion by 2030. “You can think of the car as a server on wheels,” says Intel’s CEO. “The average autonomous car will throw out 4 terabytes of data a day, so this is one of the most important markets and one of the fastest-growing markets. The deal with Mobileye merges the intelligent eyes of the autonomous car with the intelligent brain that actually drives the car.”

 Mobileye’s technology helps a car see and understand the space around it, providing functions such as automatically keeping a car in its lane. It includes 360-degree vision and mapping, and integrates various sensor elements such as cameras, radar, sonar and the laser-sensing technology known as LiDAR. 

Intel has struggled lately with the persistent decline of PC sales, which show little sign of reversing. To drive growth, the company is focusing on artificial intelligence, and self-driving cars are among the more promising applications of AI.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. Why is Intel leaving its core business? Advantages? Disadvantages?
  2. What is Mobileye’s strength?