New Project for AI-Powered Cameras
Rice University has received funding from a national foundation for a new AI-based camera technology project aimed at reducing data and energy costs.
Rice University has received an award from the National Science Foundation to develop AI-powered cameras that will significantly reduce the data, energy, and costs required by large-scale camera networks.
Purpose and Scope of the Project
The initiative rethinks how cameras capture and process information, utilizing artificial intelligence technology designed to reconstruct detailed images from sparse measurements.
Instead of capturing and transmitting every pixel in a scene, the system collects only essential measurements and enables the reconstruction of detailed images.
Application Areas and Technical Details
This approach can make battery-powered camera networks functional in areas such as remote monitoring where power, bandwidth, and computing resources are limited.
Researchers will develop generative cameras called GenCams, which obtain detailed images from a small amount of carefully selected data instead of every pixel.
Funding and Project Phases
Funded by a three-year, $900,000 grant, the project will consist of three distinct phases and integrate various sensors and models into the system.