Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of hardware and software systems capable of providing computing units with capabilities that, to a human observer, seem to imitate humans’ cognitive abilities.
It uses an assembly of nature-inspired computational methods to approximate complex real-world problems where mathematical or traditional modeling have proven ineffective or inaccurate. Artificial Intelligence uses an approximation of the way the human brain reasons, using inexact and incomplete knowledge to produce actions in an adaptive way, with experience built up over time.
ST has been actively involved in AI research for many years and has applied its knowledge to develop tools that allow embedded developers to take advantage of AI techniques on ST microcontrollers and sensors.
AI at the Edge
Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) address a variety of problems which occur in everyday life. They can exploit the data provided by sensors present in our environments, homes, offices, cars, factories, and personal items. A widespread model assumes the raw data from sensors are sent to a powerful central remote intelligence (Cloud), thus requiring significant data bandwidth and computational capabilities. That model would lower responsiveness if you consider the processing of audio, video or image files from 100s millions of end devices.
Switching from a centralized to a distributed intelligence system
AI enables much more efficient end-to-end solutions when the analysis done in the cloud is moved closer to the sensing and actions. This distributed approach significantly reduces both the required bandwidth for data transfer and the processing capabilities of cloud servers, leveraging modern computing capabilities at the edge. It also offers user data sovereignty advantages, as personal source data is pre-analyzed and provided to service providers with a higher level of interpretation.
