OMRON to Launch Imaging System for Interpretation of People's Intentions and Conditions

OMRON announces its Human Vision Component (HVC), a new image sensing component that can be embedded in a variety of devices and equipment. The HVC integrates ten algorithms from OKAO Vision and a camera module to a system capable of recognizing the intentions and conditions of people through face recognition, estimation of facial expressions, age estimation, gaze estimation, hand detection, and other functions. Launch of the standard-type HVC is scheduled for December. From next year onward, OMRON plans to introduce a succession of application-specific HVC products, which will incorporate optimized hardware and optical systems to enable customized functions that meet the requirements of each specific industry.

Examples applications include air conditioners capable of automatically adjusting the temperature to the level that people feel most comfortable; lighting products with efficient automatic control depending on the presence of people, their movements, or other conditions; automatic vending machines that suggest a product that matches the preference of a specific consumer; home appliances controllable via hand movements; robots that can react to the facial expressions of users; cars that prevent drowsy or inattentive driving by recognizing signs of fatigue in the driver's face; and more.

The ten functions to recognize the intentions and conditions of people are:

1. face detection
2. human body detection
3. gender estimation
4. age estimation
5. gaze estimation
6. facial pose estimation
7. face recognition
8. estimation of facial expressions (satisfied, unsatisfied, five different expressions: happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, and neutral)
9. hand detection
10. blink estimation