Sony has been one of the leading image sensor manufacturers in the industry bringing new technology in image processing. Several major companies like Xiaomi, Huawei use Sony’s IMX sensors in their smartphones. Now, the company has made a single image processing unit that comes integrated with AI at the hardware level.
Sony’s new “Intelligent Vision Sensor” is a unique sensor that combines a conventional CMOS image sensor and an AI logic chip in a single unit. This new sensor can improve mobile photography by many folds as it can drastically improve image processing. The company revealed this innovative sensor with a YouTube video (below).
Current image processing sensors upload the image captured to the cloud for the analysis of the image data. The AI in the cloud performs various tasks, extracts the useful data from the image and sends it back to the processor for further processing.
Now, Sony’ new “Intelligent Sensor” takes it up a notch by performing all these tasks in the device itself. So, with this new sensor, all you need for the image processing is the sensor itself and nothing more. This is possible as the necessary elements for the entire image processing are right there in the sensor, thanks to the additional AI chip.
According to Sony’s video, this sensor not only captures the light but also the necessary information from that light. For instance, it can detect various objects in the image and extract only the necessary data from it. This can drastically speed up the image processing by consuming less power and less data.
Now, as this sensor is intelligent enough to capture only the necessary information from an image, in future, it can be integrated into various camera devices such as those in smart cars, smart speakers and smart stores to enhance the experiences of the users and protect their privacy.
Currently, the “Sony Intelligent Sensor” is only a prototype and is only available to order for testing. However, with Sony’s reputation, we could see this sensor integrated into devices pretty soon in the future.
