Enough is enough and so back to Brainchip. I just found the following article about Edge Impulse from 2020 which given they are now out of the closet and proudly stating they are partnered with Brainchip it makes interesting reading. If you want to understand the possibilities a must read:
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Jul 26, 2020
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Edge Impulse
Introduction
There are over 250 Billion microcontrollers in the world, but before we dive into how these small little chips permeate all aspects of our lives lets understand what they are. Microcontrollers are essentially small computer processing units that condense a control unit onto a tiny chip that’s around the size of a thumbnail.
Edge Impulse has created technology that allows Machine Learning Models to be deployed on microcontroller embedded devices. As all parts of our world — from industry, enterprise to home — migrate to an IoT universe, the applications for Edge Impulse become almost endless.
Company Overview
EdgeImpulse provides a tinyML(tiny machine learning) platform for developers to collect data, build machine learning models, and deploy and modify the model in real-time. These models can also be run locally so that they remain ultra low power control systems. Thus, these microcontrollers can collect large amounts of data, train, and optimize control operations without having to continuously update or stream to the cloud. Its pipeline can be applied to a huge range of microcontrollers allowing developers in virtually any industry to use Edge Impulse’s Platform.
Photo Creds to
Johan Stokking
Market Analysis
The global
machine learning market size is expected to reach USD 96.7 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research. Combined with the existing 250 Billion microcontrollers that exist today and the
38.2 Billion expected to be deployed by 2023, a fast-approaching merge of these two technologies has huge market potential.
We even see clear interest from the likes of industry giants such as Google, Facebook, Tesla, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Sony, who have invested large amounts into tinyML R&D and regularly attend
tinyML summits. Apple recently acquired TinyML startup —
Xnor.ai — while AWS launched open-source
AutoGluon — an ML pipeline with neural net search functionality.
Photo Credit to Technavio
Concern
— GTM: Edge Impulse’s technology caters perfectly to large scale corporate partners. Navigating and acquiring these partnerships will be a huge part of the company’s success. Currently, the Edge is partnered with a number of microcontroller players including the main industry player,
Arm, but Edge Impulse may have trouble approaching new collaborators who do not have a deep background in tinyML.
— Stage of Technology: TinyML has yet to go mainstream. R&D is still in its early stage, and although we see extensive action from industry players there is still a long way to go. The success of this technology hinges on strong partnerships between microcontroller manufacturers, direct support, cloud services, and tool management systems. We definitely see these coming together, but the fruits of this labor will likely emerge in the long haul rather than in the next 1–2 years.
Other Players
SensiML — Acquired by QuickLogic, the company provides a SensiML Analytics Toolkit. The end-to-end development platform consolidates spanning data collection, labeling, algorithm and firmware auto-generation, and testing. Like Edge Impulse, SensiML’s platform is compatible with a huge array of microcontroller cores.
Cartesiam — Based in France, the startup has created the NanoEdge™ AI Studio which allows users to embed a machine learning static library on any ARM Microcontroller.
Reality.ai
Final Evaluation
Microcontrollers will become the backbone of smart factories, farms, stores, and buildings. Edge Impulse is strategically positioned to be the platform that will power this innovation. Unlike its competitors, it provides local processing, a key feature that will allow microcontrollers to learn independently. The company is a team of engineers with killer experience, and Edge Impulse’s current CEO was previously VP of Development at Arm. With all of this considered, the potential is clear. Even though we may have to wait a little while, I’m excited to stick around and see what they do next