For the full video of this presentation, please visit: https://www.edge-ai-vision.com/2023/07/can-ai-solve-the-low-light-and-hdr-challenge-a-presentation-from-visionary-ai/ Oren Debbi, CEO and Co-founder of Visionary.ai, presents the “Can AI Solve the Low Light and HDR Challenge?” tutorial at the May 2023 Embedded Vision Summit. The phrase “garbage in, garbage out” is applicable to machine and human vision. If we can improve the quality of image data at the source by removing noise, this will have far-reaching impacts, such as improved accuracy later in the pipeline, particularly in the challenging conditions of low light or high dynamic range. In this talk, Debbi presents his company’s new, AI-based approach for removing image noise and preserving image quality in real time, and shares the latest results demonstrating how it performs with commonly used image sensors. He also shows that Visionary.ai is able to achieve these results with very low compute resource requirements, making its approach suitable for battery-powered devices at the edge.

1. Can AI Solve the Low
Light and HDR
Challenge?
Oren Debbi
CEO
Visionary.ai

2. Visionary.ai
• Enhancing video quality in
real-time using AI
• The world’s first fully software-
based ISP
• Based in Israel, our leadership
team holds over 50 patents in
the fields of AI and computer
vision.
Who Are We?
2
Our specialization
• Licensable IP, software and
integration services for real
time image quality
improvement
© All rights reserved. Visionary.ai 2023

3. to make cutting-edge
image quality available to
all cameras
Our Vision

4. True Night Vision
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5. • Multiple sources of noise in image
sensors
• Low light makes noise worse
• Few photons per pixel = low signal to
noise
• Heat makes noise worse
• Hot silicon generates more random
noise
• Noise reduces capability of machine
vision
Noise - The Enemy of the Image
5
Noisy night image of a
vehicle license plate
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6. Noise - The Key to Unlocking Degrees of
Freedom for Designers
6
If you can remove image noise, you can
improve design parameters like:
• Low light performance
• Smaller and/or lower cost sensors
• Higher frame rate
• Shorter exposures (reduced motion blur)
• Reduce or eliminate cost of illumination
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7. Smartphone Image Quality has Created a New
Standard of Consumer Expectations
7
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8. Human or
machine
perception
Color
filter
array 12 - 24 Bit
raw signal
Silicon sensor
Lens
8 Bit RGB
Hardware ISP
Exposure
control
The Classic Image Pipeline
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9. Human or
machine
perception
Color
filter
array 12 - 24 Bit
raw signal
Silicon sensor
Lens
8 Bit RGB
Neural
network
CPU
AI based de-noiser +
software image signal
processor
Exposure
control
The New Image Pipeline
© All rights reserved. Visionary.ai 2023 9

10. We reduce noise to achieve clarity and cutting-edge detection
accuracy
Real Time AI Denoiser Enables Night Vision
Detail from a night image taken of a
vehicle license plate
Image after noise removal. Becomes
readable for both humans and computer
vision
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© All rights reserved. Visionary.ai 2023

11. 11
HIKVISION IDS-2CD9396-BIS
9 MP IR GMOS ANPR
FLIR Blackfly S USB3
7.1 MP, 51 FPS, Sony IMX428, Color
High end low light camera w/o Visionary.ai Standard camera upgraded by Visionary.ai SW ISP
11
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Premium Images from Standard Cameras

12. 12
More objects detected and higher
detection confidence
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Increase in Object Detection Accuracy

13. Benchmarks vs Leading Denoising Algorithms
13
Visionary.ai
BM3D
Guided Filtering
Restormer
Non-real-time noise performance vs time to
execute, at 0.2 Lux, 6000 Kelvin.
Denoising
performance close to
current leading
denoising approach,
“Restormer,” in less
than 0.005% of the
time
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14. • Classic denoising approaches can
cause loss of image sharpness
• This harms machine vision
performance
• Visionary.ai retains image quality,
measured by modular transfer
function MTF30 and MTF50 (higher
is better)
• Critically, our denoiser runs in real-
time
Denoising without Compromising Image
Sharpness
14
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15. Can a Mid-range Smartphone Beat
Samsung’s S22 Ultra with the Help of AI?
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16. 16
High Dynamic Range Improvement
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20% less noise, improved color accuracy and facial details

17. Direct to OEMs
Working directly with major
electronics companies, often in
higher volume systems
requiring some hardware or
feature customisation
Design Partners
Collaboration with semiconductor
and sensor companies to
accelerate availability for a wider
range of OEMs and system
integrators
Opportunities for Ecosystem Collaboration
17
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18. Recent POCs in a
range of use cases
• Robotics: delivery
drones
• IoT: Smart doorbells
• Smart ovens
• Medical imaging:
laparoscopic surgery
• Mobile phones
Mobile
Robotics
Drone Satellite
Video
conference
IoT
Traffic
Security
& CCTV
Autom
otive
Human
Vision
Machine
Vision
Smart
cities
Medical
VR/AR
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Applications

19. Resources
19
• Visionary.ai website: https://www.visionary.ai
• Live video demo at EVS 2022: Same hardware, with and
without Visionary.ai software.
• Video: Urban Night Scene demo
Drop by the Visionary.ai booth today to see the unseen
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20. Thank you
20
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