In late June, Teledyne FLIR, a subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, announced the release of Prism AI, a software framework that provides object classification, detection and tracking, enabling automotive engineers to quickly integrate thermal cameras into advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle (AV) systems.

Founded in 1978 and acquired by Teledyne Technologies last year, FLIR is a world leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of sensing systems. A pioneer in the infrared industry for commercial and government customers, the company provides advanced threat detection and thermal imaging systems that cater to industrial, scientific, law enforcement and military customers for a wide variety of imaging, thermal imaging and security applications.

PRISM AI

Prism AI is targeted at developers of automotive perception systems, it includes features such as visible and thermal image fusion and advanced thermal image processing capabilities that provide superior detection of pedestrians and animals in difficult lighting conditions. The majority of pedestrian fatalities occur at night, making such capabilities important.

Michael Walters, vice president of product management, Teledyne FLIR, states:

“The Prism AI software model has performed well in third-party NCAP automatic emergency braking (AEB) tests and will now help perception engineers create more effective systems. The combination of Prism AI development tools, plugins and dataset development provides integrators with a way to quickly test and reduce development costs for ADAS or thermal AV that will help save lives.”

Developers can use Prism AI as their primary perception software or as reference software when developing in-house. A suite of Prism AI tools allows for simplified data integration with the cloud-based Teledyne FLIR Conservator data lifecycle management software for perceptual engineers using thermal infrared and visible image datasets to train neural networks, released last April.

Compatible with industry-leading Teledyne FLIR thermal cameras, including Boson®, Tau® 2 and FLIR ADK™, Prism AI also includes features required for production, including authentication between the thermal camera and the electronic control unit, simplifying development.

By enabling efficient development of perception models, Prism AI also reduces computational costs for commonly used desktop processors such as NVIDIA, Ambarella, Qualcomm… With Teledyne FLIR’s expert technical support for Prism AI integration, perception engineers from universities to automotive OEMs will now have a complete ecosystem for building thermal ADAS and AV systems.

Figures for the first half of 2021 from the Governors Highway Safety Association, the equivalent of France’s Association de Prévention Routière, estimated that pedestrian fatalities were up 17 percent from the previous year and jumped 46 percent from 2011. Thermally enhanced ADAS and AV systems can play a critical role in reducing pedestrian fatalities and enable OEMs to meet upcoming regulatory testing procedures that include preventing nighttime frontal collisions with pedestrians.

Translated from Teledyne FLIR présente Prism AI, logiciel pour le développement de systèmes de perception thermique automobile