Intelligent Vision Sensors “IMX500/501”: Edge Solutions That Help Solve Social Issues
Sony Group Corporation
IVS IMX500
Advantages of the IVS IMX500
Enviromental contribution
Outline
The spread of IoT is making cloud computing systems commonplace. However there is a concern that this will lead to increased CO₂ emissions as IP traffic and data center electricity consumption rise due to higher data volumes from a growing number of IoT devices. Edge computing addresses these problems by employing IoT devices that process and analyze data.
The intelligent vision sensors “IMX500/501” developed by Sony are image sensors equipped with AI processing functionality, to enable the output of desired metadata (semantic information belonging to image data) instead of image information. Because it only extracts necessary data, the data transmission latency, power consumption, and communication costs are reduced. Furthermore, privacy concerns are addressed by not outputting information that can identify an individual.
Description
In May 2020, Sony announced the commercial release of intelligent vision sensors “IMX500/501”, the first image sensors in the world to be equipped with AI processing functionality. The sensors feature a stacked configuration consisting of a pixel chip and logic chip, which are key technologies of Sony’s image sensors. The logic chip is equipped with Sony’s original DSP (Digital Signal Processor) dedicated to AI signal processing, and embedded memory for the AI model.
The spread of IoT is making cloud computing systems commonplace. However there is a concern that this will lead to increased CO₂ emissions as IP traffic and data center electricity consumption rise due to higher data volumes from a growing number of IoT devices. Edge computing addresses these problems by employing IoT devices that process and analyze data.
The intelligent vision sensors “IMX500/501” developed by Sony are image sensors equipped with AI processing functionality, to enable the output of desired metadata (semantic information belonging to image data).
Because it only extracts necessary data, the data transmission latency, power consumption, and communication costs are reduced. Furthermore, privacy concerns are addressed by not outputting information that can identify an individual.
Intelligent vision sensors are expected to be deployed in a wide variety of next-generation solutions. The municipality of Rome in Italy faces issues such as gridlock and pollution from those cruising to find a parking space, overloaded buses, and frequent traffic accidents due to pedestrians failing to obey traffic lights. In June 2021, the city of Rome started trials using a smart camera equipped with intelligent vision sensors “IMX500”, aiming to solve these social issues, with local application development partners.
Sony will continue to leverage imaging and sensing technologies to help solve various social issues.
Partner(s)
Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
Supplementary information
News release: Sony to Release World's First Intelligent Vision Sensors with AI Processing Functionality
https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/News/Press/202005/20-037E/
News release: Sony cooperates in smart city trial project in Rome using intelligent vision sensors to reduce traffic, optimise public transportation and support pedestrian safety
Sustainability Report 2021: P65
https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/csr/library/reports/SustainabilityReport2021_E.pdf
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