Car taillights saving lives, immersive displays allowing photos to tell their own story, personalised shopping experiences. These are just a few of the innovations presented by Intel at its 11th annual Research@Intel event, a showcase of the most innovative new research spawned from Intel’s internal efforts and external collaborations.
Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer, kicked off the event by highlighting some of the 20 groundbreaking research projects on show.
Supplementing its own robust and diverse research efforts, Intel Labs two years ago deployed a unique model of direct collaboration with the world’s leading academic researchers, creating a global network of seven Intel Science and Technology Centres (ISTCs) and six Intel Collaborative Research Institutes (ICRIs).
Each centre has built its own vibrant community of researchers to speed advances in embedded, cloud, social and secure computing, among other fields.
This week’s event showcases a sample of these research advances – and many from Intel’s own labs – across these and many other sectors, including visual and context-aware computing as well as significant progress in fields such as big data.
“The majority of our research is conducted by Intel’s own researchers but we are delighted by the quality and quantity of research coming out of the ISTCs and ICRIs,” says Rattner.
“Importantly, the deeply collaborative structure of these engagements is based on an open IP model benefiting not just Intel and researchers, but the high technology industry and human society at large.”
Demos at the Research@Intel event are housed in four different zones, including:
* Enriching lives – developing computing experiences that simplify, enhance and enrich people’s lives. This research is intended to help people be understood, expressive and free. One demonstration, titled “Be Meaningful,” using “Shelf Edge Technology (SET),” can help detect a person’s presence in a store and create a more meaningful, personalized shopping experience.
If a car needs an air filter, for example, SET could use the vehicle’s service records to alert the owner about the need for a specific filter when the owner enters an auto parts store. If a person has peanut allergies, SET could warn of potentially dangerous products. If a person plans to cook salmon for dinner, SET could recommend wines to best compliment the dish.
* The data society – unlocking the power of data for everyone. In addition to pushing the boundaries of what institutions can do with big data, Intel Labs has put an emphasis on the exploration of meaningful data exchange among individuals. Researchers are looking at ways to adapt the digital infrastructure to allow people to better capture, move and work with digital information easily and effectively.
In a demonstration titled, “Vibrant Data Communities,” Intel Labs researchers combine public and personal data with context-aware algorithms to identify and present the most useful information to individuals. For example, air quality sensors in a neighbourhood could help steer a person clear of pollen hotspots in during allergy season.
* Intelligent everything – innovations that transform inanimate objects by adding sensing capabilities, helping enable sustainable and smart living experiences. In one demonstration, researchers are working on easy-to-use tools to automate contextual cues with already-existing sensors so that a home behaves usefully in response to events and a family’s unique needs.
The demonstration shows how to easily link a Web camera and a music system to act as a home security system and to link a Web camera that receives contextual cues from a baby in a crib and an alarm by the parents’ bed to act as a baby monitor.
* Tech essentials – technology building blocks – including circuits, architecture and software – that provide a foundation for all of the areas above. For example, the “Protecting Sensor Data” demonstration uses Intel hardware and software to prevent malicious parties for accessing personal information recorded by cameras, microphones and GPS locators embedded in mobile devices.