MediaTek presented the new trends and developments in solutions for Artificial Intelligence, showing some of the functionalities that we will be able to see in the coming years.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the technological developments that has been most widely deployed in recent years, having a specially consolidated presence on our mobile devices. According to the international consulting firm Gartner, by 2022 approximately 80% of mobile devices will be equipped with some type of AI.
In this line, MediaTek, one of the main companies participating in the development of technologies for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), organized in our country a workshop by international experts to expose the advances in this field and how they will revolutionize the way in which we interact with various devices starting with our Smartphones.
The workshop was divided into four segments: an introduction to AI technology, to understand its definition and scope; the AI ecosystem, with its various current uses and influence on the lives of users; a demonstration of AI Technologies applied to smartphones, with examples of the functionalities that we can already find, to close with AI Trends. Some of the most relevant points of the presentation were:
APU processors: During the exhibition, one of the highlights was the presentation of the APU processors (Artificial Intelligence Processing Unit), which were designed to execute the most complex functions of Artificial intelligence while maintaining response efficiency and low battery consumption in Devices, integrated into different ranges of MediaTek chipsets (eg Helio P90, P70), provide a new level of performance for AI applications on different devices.
Neuro Pilot new versions: MediaTek has been working on a development ecosystem for Artificial Intelligence, making use of its APU processing unit which works as a "Neuron", which allows executing different functionalities. Neuro Pilot allows developers to use the different software development tools on the market (Tensor Flow from Google / Caffe 2) and combine it with the execution of tasks on the device through the APU, the evolution presented is the option of add an Artificial Intelligence Accelerator (AIA), which allows proper handling of connection data reducing machine learning time to 1.5 months compared to the 3 month range used in previous generations.
AI functionalities: Some of the applications in which we can see the use of APU processors and the Neuro Pilot ecosystem are:
CAMERA: The new algorithms will allow new photography functions in 2020 as night photography in HDR (High Resolution) with the zoom capacity of up to 30X. We will see new implementations with these features in next year's implementations.
FACE Unlock: Response time that goes from 0.5 Seconds (in 2017) to an average of 0.02 seconds in 2019, in addition to incorporating Deep Learning algorithms that improve continuous learning on smartphones.
NeuroPilot / MLKits: The MediaTek Development Kit allows you to optimize machine learning time by reducing it by half (3 to 1.5 months), and allow you to perform Quantization, Reduction and network search tasks on devices allowing optimal performance and easier integration of AI functionality in chipsets like Helio P90.
Tracking Objects: MediaTek presented the live demonstration of its “Move Tracking” system, by tracking movement with the team's camera and using artificial intelligence algorithms, it showed the tracking of movements in people and how to replicate this behavior in a robot, this as a simple example of the uses that can be made of AI functions.
Targeting: The new AI algorithms will allow our devices to learn day by day from the habits of their user, interpreting their behavior and tastes, in this way our Smartphone will adapt to our way of use allowing to extend the battery life, optimization of resources like memory and most importantly taking the user experience to another level.
Alexander Rojas, Business Development Manager for Latin America at MediaTek, commented on the advantages of the evolution of artificial intelligence and the transformation it will bring to users. “AI is creating a revolution in the way we interact with our environment. In just five months, technologies such as MediaTek's MLKits reduced machine learning in half the time, this shows us the scope that these algorithms will be able to achieve in a few years. and impact our daily activities beyond the use of smartphones ”he pointed out.
Improvements to the user experience
One aspect that MediaTek highlighted in its presentation is that for AI to be applied to smartphones, providing a superior experience, it is necessary to correctly combine software and hardware, so that these new equipment process the information at very high speed.
“AI smartphones are faster because we equip them with independent processors to assign these tasks. This allows the possibility of carrying out complex operations, thanks to the integration of "NeuroPilot", said Rojas.