Cenkos note out4 Sep 2020 10:05
Seeing Machines has announced the launch of its OcculaTM Neural Processing Unit and its next generation 'Embedded Product Strategy' for the automotive market. This provides a further step change in delivery of Driver Monitoring System (DMS) technology to automotive Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs, extending cost, scalability and integration benefits for carmakers as well as safety and convenience for their customers
OcculaTM Neural Processing Unit: The use of AI software acceleration (Neural processing) provides the Seeing Machines FOVIO branded DMS algorithms a further step change by reducing the computational load by 50% whilst delivering the same functionality and performance. We believe this significantly extends its technology lead and whilst these developments are likely to have been shared with existing customers, the launch with a brand demonstrates the company is also stepping up its marketing, having kept relatively quiet about its technology development path for competitive reasons.
? Ocular can be applied OTA to FOVIO chip implementations. This means existing FOVIO chip customers can benefit as the processing headroom provided enables room for new added features off the same hardware, enabling the potential for increased ASPs to Seeing Machines per vehicle.
? New embedded Driver Monitoring Engine (e-DME) offers an efficient, low-friction integration pathway for the Seeing Machines driver and interior monitoring technology into any vehicle integration point, including smart-mirrors, instrument clusters, infotainment ECUs or centralized ADAS processing systems.
? Available to license for ASICs: OcculaTM is now available for license to world-leading semiconductor companies for integration with any automotive compute platform that would benefit from world leading, highly optimised, "deep edge" driver and/or interior monitoring.
Comments
We see the launch of OcculaTM as an exciting development for the company with this step change in the Seeing Machines technology expected to further the gap from its peers in benchmark testing. It is the result of significant work under the radar and the announcement demonstrates confidence in the company that it has world class technology not just in DMS but also human tracking and detection. With the added offer to license for virtually any embedded or ASIC application a Tier 2, Tier 1 or OEM can think of, Seeing Machines has brought its top tier
performance into easy access and affordability for all vehicles (and locations in vehicles) as well as other applications. This will undoubtedly increase its potential market share in automotive but will also no doubt pique the interest of other technology developers and integrators. Seeing Machines is therefore opening back up from a transportation focussed technology company to a
human-machine interface technology supplier which could deliver further significant value to investors which is not reflected in the current share price.