Nvidia’s Always-On Chip Detects Faces in Less Than a Millisecond

Always-on vision systems might be used in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or to help consumer electronics save power by turning screens off when no one’s around. But to be used in such a way, these systems need to minimize their own power consumption. An always-on computer vision system developed by Nvidia researchers can detect human faces in less than a millisecond. The face detector, which is part of a chip that could be integrated into robots, autonomous vehicles, or laptops, saves power by storing all data locally and “racing to sleep” after detections. Nvidia electrical engineer Ben Keller presented the system on 18 February at the IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. Efficient Vision-Processing Technology According to the researchers, this kind of vision processing typically requires about 10 watts. But that’s too much power to leave a face-detection system on continuously. The Nvidia system on chip (SoC) uses…