Computer vision is the most rapidly growing branch of artificial intelligence. Numerous businesses in India are leveraging the power of video analytics powered by computer vision to solve problems across various industries, from manufacturing and security to fashion and transportation. The rapid adoption of AI, machine learning, and technological advancements in hardware and software contribute to this massive growth.

Why Computer Vision?

Computer vision can transform many industries and business processes as an AI tool. Additionally, this data-driven innovation allows machines to interpret the world visually. Moreover, visual data includes photographs, videos, and infrared and thermal camera feeds. Researchers in computer vision hope to create devices that automatically perform tasks requiring visual cognition. The most popular use of this computer vision is facial recognition.

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) interpret visual data in machine vision. Big data is also helping to evolve what a computer's eye can recognize and deduce from what it sees. Now, some businesses are trying to set an example by focusing on computer vision.

Applications and Benefits of Computer Vision 

Computer vision has an infinite number of applications. Computer vision's impact is felt across various industries, from sports to agriculture to retail to banking to insurance.

Public Safety and Home Security

Computer vision combined with image and facial recognition enables the rapid identification of unauthorized entries or persons of interest and a more effective crime deterrent.

Enhanced human-computer interaction

Human-computer interaction increases customer satisfaction—especially products based on sentiment analysis of customers in retail locations or faster banking services, with immediate authentication based on the customer's identity and preferences.

Autonomous Vehicles

Automobile manufacturers can provide improved and safer self-driving car navigation by leveraging computer vision technologies. It contributes to making autonomous driving a reality and a secure mode of transportation.

Medical Imaging

Computer vision-based medical image analysis can significantly improve the accuracy and speed of a patient's medical diagnosis, resulting in improved treatment outcomes and life expectancy.

Manufacturing Process Control

Computer vision and robotics improve quality assurance and operational efficiencies. Particularly in manufacturing, this results in more reliable and cost-effective products.

The following is a curated list of the top ten real-world computer vision applications:

• Facial Recognition
• Augmented Reality
• Social Distancing
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
• Machine Vision
• Self-driving cars
• Optical Character Recognition
• Visual Search
• Gesture Recognition
• Computer-aided Diagnosis

India's Top Computer Vision Companies to Watch in 2022

India's wide range of industries benefits from video analytics powered by computer vision, from manufacturing and security to fashion and transportation. Some of the computer vision startups based in India are:

NetraDyne

• Founded: 2015
• Headquarters: San Diego and Bengaluru
• Founders: David Julian and Avneesh Agrawal

NetraDyne shapes the transportation space via computer vision and data analysis. In this way, it contributes to the creation of safer roads. It combines the power of AI and video to detect, reason, and forecast the likelihood of an event occurring. In July, it raised $150 million in Series C funding, bringing the total funding to over $197 million. SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Point72 Ventures, and M12 invest in the company.

IntelloLabs

• Founded: 2016
• Headquarters: Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Singapore
• Founders: Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra, Himani Shah and Devendra Chandani.

IntelloLabs uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision to combat food loss. How does the company do this? It automates the quality assessment of fresh produce. Moreover, Intellolabs uses image matching and machine learning to assess crop quality. Its advanced image recognition technology can identify objects, faces, plants, and animals in any image. Last year, IntelloLabs raised $5.9 million from Saama Capital.

Playment

• Founded: 2015
• Headquarters: Bengaluru, San Francisco
• Founders: Siddharth Mall, Ajinkya Malasane, and Akshay Lal

Playment is a data labelling platform that generates training data for computer vision models. It provides high-precision annotation services to businesses involved in autonomous vehicles, drones, and mapping. Additionally, it is a crowdsourcing platform where consumers can participate in tasks such as image labelling. Telus International acquired Playment in July for an undisclosed sum.

Streamoid

• Founded: 2013
• Headquarters: Bengaluru, New York
• Founders: Sridhar Manthani, Haricharan Lakshman, and Rajesh Kumar

Streamoid is an innovator in fashion AI to create intelligent shopping experiences. The company's search engine can help users obtain personalized results based on their anatomy, previous behaviour, and purchases. Using CV, they can present the product on various human models and multiple backdrops. The company has raised $1 million in seed funding from an undisclosed number of angel investors.

• https://www.e2enetworks.com/computer-vision/
• Image source: Unsplash