Itseez, a Russian company developing computer vision algorithms and implementations for embedded and specialized hardware, has just been acquired by Intel. The US corporation has announced a “definitive agreement” – without disclosing, however, any details of the deal.
“This acquisition furthers Intel’s efforts to win in IoT market segments like automotive and video, where the ability to electronically perceive and understand images paves the way for innovation and opportunity,” Intel stated.
Itseez will become “a key ingredient for Intel’s Internet of Things Group (IOTG) roadmap,” and will help Intel’s customers “create innovative deep-learning-based CV applications like autonomous driving, digital security and surveillance, and industrial inspection.”
Itseez is also a key contributor to computer vision standards initiatives including OpenCV and OpenVX, according to the US corporation.
“Together, we’ll step up our contribution to these standards bodies – defining a technology bridge that helps the industry move more quickly to OpenVX-based products,” Intel stated.
From Nizhny Novgorod to San Francisco
Formerly known as Computer Vision Center Argus, Itseez was founded in 2005 in Nizhny Novgorod, a large Russian city 400 km east of Moscow.
Among the company’s first initiatives were the creation of a digital planetarium system installed in several locations in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the development of vCount, a people counter system which is now widely used in Russia.
Now the company presents itself as an international, San Francisco-based company. It is incubating such new products as itSeez3D, an innovative consumer 3D scanning solution, and Facense, an embedded face solution.
