DISRUPTIVE Scottish start-up company IMERAI has developed a sensor which allows an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to understand the physical world around it.
The technology uses echolocation instead of light to receive images in a similar way to a bat which uses sound to understand its surroundings. The resulting picture appears without identifiable data so that privacy is protected.
Focusing initially on domestic applications, the breakthrough is essential for privacy in the home. However, the sensor’s applications are wide ranging, including facilitating social distancing in office buildings and supporting those with dementia and other assisted living needs.
IMERAI, based at the Edinburgh Business School Incubator, Heriot Watt University, has now attracted sufficient investment to build a full engineering team with the addition of five new roles.
Alex Bowen, a recent Heriot-Watt University graduate, founded IMERAI in 2018. He evolved the technology from his dissertation project into the business.
He
said: “To train and build an A.I. you need to teach it how to interpret
information which is most often described by a human. All A.I.s need
to constantly learn and adapt to understand the world like we do. But
industry continues to face the challenge of how to teach A.I. about
what happens in people’s homes without invading users’ privacy from
human oversight or camera use.
“As with many problems, nature had the solution. In the wild, bats send
out a screech and they listen for the echoes to understand distances and
the location of physical objects. In this way, the bat can interpret
its surroundings. Our sensors work in a similar way using echolocation to
create a picture without any identifying data so that privacy is
protected.
“This has widespread applications. As the UK debates how to ease lockdown
measures safely, this type of technology could be used to
count how many people are present in an office location and how far
apart they are to aid with social distancing and infection control. For
assisted living, this could be game-changing for dementia sufferers and
others with assisted living needs, allowing their movements to be
monitored and any deterioration to be picked up more quickly.”
