Synaptics has teamed up with Edge Impulse in an effort to kickstart edge IoT development. To that end, the two companies will integrate Synaptics’ Katana System-on-Chip (SoC) solution with Edge Impulse’s Embedded Machine Learning (ML) software development platform.
Together, the two solutions will minimize the amount of time needed to develop and deploy new AI applications at the edge. The low-power Katana platform offers support for audio and computer vision applications, thanks to its acquisition of the DSP Group in August. The Edge Impulse Embedded ML platform, on the other hand, lets developers build and test small scale ML models in a matter of minutes through a cloud platform that does not require any code. That allows the developers to iterate quickly, and optimize their models to perform well in a wide range of situations and devices.
The Katana platform offers low latency to improve performance while still delivering low power requirements. It can process image and sound detection events simultaneously, and offers support for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. It will also be available through the Edge Impulse platform before the end of 2021.
“This partnership provides a fast and efficient way to create and optimize custom models for the Katana platform that will significantly improve overall time to market for battery-powered connected devices at the edge,” said Synaptics CPO Venkat Kodavati.
“The key to the successful deployment of low-power edge AI devices at scale is a strong relationship between silicon solutions providers and AI software and platform vendors,” added Edge Impulse CEO Zach Shelby. “This partnership strengthens our mutual solutions as well as the ecosystem needed to proliferate smart IoT across a wider range of applications.”
According to Synaptics, the joint solution can be deployed in a wide range of settings, including factories, smart homes, and retail outlets. Potential applications include object recognition, people counting, and inventory tracking, in addition to acoustic event detection. Synaptics is part of the Voice Interoperability Initiative, and acquired Broadcom’s wireless IoT portfolio in July of 2020.
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