ITRI TODAY Spring issue 2022

Novel Applications in AI, Robotics, and ICT

AI, Robotics, and ICT are always a spotlight of CES, and this year ITRI presented the RGB-D AI Robot, the first collaborative robot that integrates smart 3D vision as a standard; the Autonomous Selfie Drone, which flies itself to take the best selfie picture using AI; and the Interactive Time Machine, which creates a 3D interactive avatar from the user’s full body with AI and forms a metaverse for avatars to interact with players in real time.

RGB-D AI Robot

The RGB-D AI Robot, a CES 2022 Innovation Awards honoree, is the world's first collaborative robot featuring 3D vision as a built-in standard. The smart sensing technology functions as a pair of sharp eyes on a robotic arm, and it reduces the size of the sensor by 168 times compared with other robots, while increasing the sensing speed by 38.6 times.

The Robot includes self-learning technology to enable fast, high-precision 3D object retrieval, eliminating the need for revising control programs to teach robots to identify objects, which often takes one to two weeks. Whenever a production line is changed or new materials are introduced, the Robot can automatically scan tens of thousands of training materials, quickly learning the best handling strategy in less than 12 hours. Consequently, engineering costs are greatly reduced, and production efficiency is boosted.

Possible applications include sorting and packaging objects for smart automation in the manufacturing and logistics industries. The Robot also has potential use in retail or service businesses and healthcare to directly serve customers.

Autonomous Selfie Drone

The Autonomous Selfie Drone frees the user from photography courses—it does all the hard composition, angle, and lighting preparation, flying itself into position to take the best selfie picture based on AI algorithms and data acquired from essential photography techniques.

Users who know photography also can follow their individual preferences to set up different close-up angles, photography body ratio, and compositions. The drone can analyze posture and head orientation to automatically adjust its own position and the angle of depression to achieve the best composition. Its relative portrait mode uses smart framing technology to analyze the user and background, creating a natural and unobtrusive match between the subject and the surroundings.

Compared with other selfie drones, ITRI’s innovation distinguishes itself with fully automated photography, smart aesthetic composition, and the direct use of the phone camera, which grants superior resolution and removes the need to convert image formats.

Interactive Time Machine

ITRI’s Interactive Time Machine is the first and only system that creates with AI a 3D interactive avatar from the user’s full body rather than from the face only, automatically generates a younger-looking avatar including the user’s surroundings, and forms a metaverse for avatars to interact with players in real time.

The user can move freely in front of the system, and the 3D model shown on the display creates the corresponding movements simultaneously. The user can also interact with a virtual self that looks younger or older, which creates a unique experience that intertwines the real world with the virtual one. Use cases include VR/AR/MR gaming, personal entertainment, teleconferences where people meet and interact with their 3D models, and exhibitions for interactive activities to attract visitors.

Other AI, robotics, and ICT technologies that ITRI showcased for CES 2022 included the DNN Video Analysis OS, the Ultra Low Power AI Accelerator, Virtualization-based Fault Tolerance for Critical Online Services, and the 5G O-RAN RIC.