AI detection package boosts embedded thermal automotive perception

01 Mar 2023

Flir’s latest Prism AI iteration validated on 2.3 million multi-spectrum annotations, to improve perception.

US data reveal a 17% increase in pedestrian fatalities in H1, 2021 over H1, 2020.

The package is said to enable perception engineers “to quickly integrate thermal cameras for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle (AV) systems, improving object tracking performance by up to 24 percent compared to the previous Prism AI release.”

Michael Walters, vice president of product management, commented, “The improved Prism AI software model enables embedded system testing and development, empowering perception engineers to create more effective systems easier than ever before with thermal capabilities. As our AI ecosystem and tools continue to expand, we can offer integrators a route to quickly test and decrease development costs for life-saving thermal-enabled ADAS or AV.”

Automotive perception

Designed for automotive perception system developers, Prism AI provides seven object detection classes, visible-and-thermal image fusion, advanced thermal image processing capabilities, new shadow mode recording capabilities, batch data ingestion, and more. Together these features simplify the integration of automotive thermal sensors that provide superior pedestrian, animal, and vehicle detection, especially at night and in poor visibility.

Developers may use Prism AI as the primary perception software or as reference software during in-house development. A suite of Prism AI tools provides simplified data integration with Teledyne Flir Conservator data lifecycle management software as well as the industry’s largest thermal-and-visible training dataset.

Improving vehicle perception in all types of conditions is critical to reducing the record number of pedestrian fatalities. In the United States, preliminary data from the Governors Highway Safety Association estimated a 17 percent increase in pedestrian fatalities in the first half of 2021 compared to the previous year and a 46 percent jump from 2011.

The new Prism AI package can be seen first hand at SPIE DCS, taking place April 30 – May 4, in Orlando, Florida, and at AUVSI Xponential, May 9 – 11, in Denver, Colorado.