Sony is a company that is known for its image sensors and today they have announced some pretty cool ones.
They have announced two image sensors that have onboard AI which they promise reduces data transmission latency, minimizes privacy concerns and reduces power consumption costs. Many apps rely on sending the photos and videos they take to the cloud to be analyzed by AI system and this product seeks to eliminate that need.
The two sensors are the IMX 500 AND THE IMX 501 which are both 1/2.3 inch 12.3MP sensors
“The spread of IoT has resulted in all types of devices being connected to the cloud, making commonplace the use of information processing systems where information obtained from such devices is processed via AI on the cloud,” Sony says.
Sony expects this to be used for a number of IoT related scenarios. For example, a company can write an AI model where they can use it for a retail location to count the number of visitors entering the facility or detect stock shortages or for heat mapping store visitors and so on.
Sony has a huge presence in the imaging sensor market. It has almost half of the market share in this department and you see their sensors being used in smartphones, DSLRs, mirrorless cameras and so on. It is a huge moneymaker for them and with such innovations, they will continue to be the market leader for some time. They still have to look out for Samsung, who are in second place in this industry and are pouring billions of dollars to improve their standing in the market.
