The technology uses echolocation instead of light to receive images in a similar way to a bat which uses sound to understand its surroundings. The resulting picture appears without identifiable data so that privacy is protected.
Focusing initially on domestic applications, the breakthrough will be essential for privacy in the home. However, the sensor’s applications are wide ranging, including facilitating social distancing in office buildings and supporting those with dementia and other assisted living needs.
Founded in 2018, IMERAI has now attracted sufficient investment to build a full engineering team with the addition of five new roles.
Founder Alex Bowen, said,“To train and build an A.I. you need to teach it how to interpret information which is most often described by a human. All A.I.s need to constantly learn and adapt to understand the world like we do. But industry continues to face the challenge of how to teach A.I. about what happens in people’s homes without invading users’ privacy from human oversight or camera use.
“In the wild, bats send out a screech and they listen for the echoes to understand distances and the location of physical objects. In this way, the bat can interpret its surroundings. Our sensors work in a similar way using echolocation to create a picture without any identifying data so that privacy is protected.
“This has widespread applications. As the UK debates how to ease lockdown measures safely, this type of technology could be used to count how many people are present in an office location and how far apart they are to aid with social distancing and infection control. For assisted living, this could be game-changing for dementia sufferers and others with assisted living needs, allowing their movements to be monitored and any deterioration to be picked up more quickly.”
Utilising MEMS microphones, IMERAI’s technology will provide the foundations for more sophisticated A.I. products to be built with more seamless functionality.
Bowen explains: “The virtual A.I. assistants already on the market are manually triggered by voice but our technology will allow the A.I. to be more intuitive by understanding how its user is moving around. For example, if you are following a recipe and the virtual assistant is reading out the instructions, it will be able to ‘see’ when you are ready for the next ingredient rather than waiting to be prompted for the next instruction.”
IMERAI is based in the Edinburgh Business School Incubator at Heriot-Watt University.
