Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2023.  Read them in this 15th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

How Innovation in 2023 Will Be Fueled by Results-Focused Vision Platforms, Efficient Edge Data, and IoT Standardization and Democratization

By Mark Hanson, Vice President of Technology and Business Innovation, Sony Semiconductor

As vision platform, edge computing and IoT standardization have driven continued innovation from the semiconductor manufacturers. To this, based on activity seen first-hand over the past year, we foresee 3 key trends to take shape in the next year and beyond:

1.  Vision platforms will focus on delivering ROI

• In a tense economic macroenvironment, the AI and sensor industry will shift away from expensive and unwieldy moonshot projects and move toward solving narrower, concrete problems that have a clearer path to deliver a return on investment.
• Instead of creating platforms in search of a problem, groups like Sony are tackling existing, known problems like anomaly detection in factories and tracking of inventory on customer shelves, planogram compliance, etc. through their AITRIOS platform.
• Early and novel vision AI implementations have typically been brittle and may only work under a stringent set of conditions. As the industry matures, scalability and ease of implementation are increasingly important to buyers, so development of sensors and their corresponding AI will focus on creating the resilience needed to work in a wide variety of conditions and environments. Sony, with its rich semiconductor and computing history, is already manufacturing sensors that can work outside in punishing and variable environments including everything from urban areas to large-scale agricultural fields.
• At the end of the day, successful implementations will deliver better customer experiences and improve profitability. This is already happening in forward-looking businesses, such as fast-food chains optimizing their drive throughs, shopping areas improving their parking situations, and retail groups raising their stocking adherence rates.

2.  Privacy and bandwidth give edge computing an advantage

• In the era of IoT, some people have concerns with the data being captured about them. Edge computing platforms that process information on-chip instead of on-cloud are a privacy-first solution that respect people and their data. As we look to 2023, we expect additional organizations to gravitate toward edge computing solutions that respect their clientele and help avoid potential privacy-related hazards.
• Edge computing platforms, like Sony AITRIOS, also benefit from reduced latency in data transmission and processing, lower power consumption, greater service continuity, and increased security.
• Taken all together, edge computing is the sustainable, forward-looking path for platforms to follow. Implementing vision solutions can also increase sustainability and profitability through their outcomes, such as by reducing waste in smart factories, limiting staff overhead on automatable task checking, and using data to save time on everyday tasks like searching for parking.

3.  IoT standardization and democratization leads to tremendous growth

• People have talked about the Internet of Things for many years, but the industry is still in its nascency. Only recently have a confluence of breakthroughs including edge computing, advanced and resilient machine learning models, and accessible development platforms made truly useful enterprise applications viable.
• As the number of devices and uses grow, we expect to see more improved and universal standards developed that will make devices interoperable and allow businesses to mix-and-match their solutions to fit their needs.
• As it becomes easier and easier to deploy enterprise-grade IoT solutions, we’ll see a tremendous growth in the scale of applications. Cutting-edge vision solutions used in smart factories will become accessible to mom-and-pop businesses and shelf-scanning technology will proliferate out of massive chains and into bodega corner stores.
• Resilient, flexible solutions like Sony AITRIOS will have an edge thanks to the variety of uses that already exist within its ecosystem.

With the tense economic macroenvironment continuing to play out in the next year, these trends playing out will set the tone for what enables the next wave of vision platform innovation.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As Vice President of Technology and Business Innovation, Mark Hanson drives and accelerates new business ideas, products and services for Sony’s Component Division. His team develops strategy for execution of new business incubation and is responsible for driving the full line of Sony core component products for new usages in IOT and connected device space for consumer, commercial and enterprise channels.