The branch of artificial intelligence called deep learning has given us new wonders such as self-driving cars and instant language translation on our phones. Now it’s about to injects smarts into every other object imaginable.

That’s because makers of silicon processors from giants such as Intel INTC -0.85% Corp. and Qualcomm QCOM +0.59% Technologies Inc. as well as a raft of smaller companies are starting to embed deep learning software into their chips, particularly for mobile vision applications. In fairly short order, that’s likely to lead to much smarter phones, drones, robots, cameras, wearables and more.

“Consumers will be genuinely amazed at the capabilities of these devices,” says Cormac Brick, vice president of machine learning for Movidius Ltd., a maker of vision processor chips in San Mateo, Calif.

Movidius was one of several chip companies that presented their designs at this past week’s Embedded Vision Summit in Santa Clara, Calif. Movidius, which in January announced a deal with Google GOOGL +0.50% Inc. in January to supply a chip that will be used in a yet-to-be-announced mobile device from the search giant, also debuted on Apr. 28 what it calls the first deep learning module on a USB stick. Using 1 watt of power, it’s intended to provide neural network capabilities to mobile devices such as drones, cameras and robots.

Mobile chip leader Qualcomm announced a software developer kit for its Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine, allowing smartphones, drones, and other devices better track objects and recognize sounds. Intel, ARM Holdings , CEVA Inc. and Cadence Design Systems Inc. also promoted their chips’ utility for deep learning. And Google, one of the leaders in deep learning, announced that its open-source TensorFlow deep learning software will support lower-power eight-bit processors that are crucial for mobile applications.

By: DocMemory
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