IOTech, the edge software company, announced today that the latest release of Edge Xpert features new capabilities to support computer vision and AI at the IoT edge. Edge Xpert, a leading edge computing platform, is the company's value-add and commercial implementation of EdgeX Foundry.

Edge Xpert (v1.8) is now delivered with an add-on for computer vision that enables users to run their AI algorithms and vision models at the edge. Based on Intel's OpenVINO toolkit, the Edge Xpert computer vision service provides users with the capability to deploy advanced vision-based workloads alongside their existing intelligent edge solutions.

In conjunction with existing support for IP camera and video device connectivity, Edge Xpert users can now easily control camera devices, collect video streams and automatically apply AI and vision inference right at the edge. The service supports deploying models that can include object detection, classification and recognition. It then passes that inferred intelligence to other services for decision-making and control. Edge Xpert already supports ingestion of data from many industrial protocols and devices. Users can therefore aggregate and fuse together sensor data with vision inference results to obtain a complete and accurate picture of the edge environment.

"Providing our users with the ability to easily run computer vision inference and advanced AI at the edge is an exciting advancement as they launch solutions into the market," said Keith Steele, IOTech founder and CEO. "There are literally thousands of vison-based use cases, from automatic theft detection to safety systems and predictive maintenance, that all rely on computer vision and AI at the edge. We will soon be announcing a number of key partnerships and innovations in this space."

Computer vision and AI traditionally have been employed as cloud-based IT processes. However, the next major wave of business transformations will be brought about by deploying this technology at the edge of the network. Running computer vision and AI algorithms at the edge and on-premise provides immediate and real-time operational insights that can revolutionize how businesses operate. This will be a catalyst for significant growth for vision-based AI in many industrial verticals including retail, manufacturing, transportation and venue management.

This latest release of Edge Xpert includes additional key features that help fast-track the roll out of edge solutions, including advanced tooling and enhancements to the existing array of IOTech's edge device connectors. With these features, edge devices can be connected and automatically onboarded to the platform at scale.

Edge Xpert also includes the key features provided in the "Hanoi" release of EdgeX Foundry. These include the ability for device connectors to be distributed on different hosts to the other microservices, data tagging to uniquely identify data sources as the data is transported northbound, and many other important upgrades that help with the scalability and roll-out of Edge Xpert.

In addition to this release, IOTech has launched the IOTech store, which allows users to conveniently purchase the specific software products and features they need for their edge IoT deployments. Both Edge Xpert and Edge XRT, which is a complementary product for the time-critical and resource-constrained edge, are available for immediate purchase and download on the company's online store.