SmartCow launches its new edge AI camera, SmartCam

SmartCow is an artificial intelligence (AI) engineering company specialising in video analytics and artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) devices.

Established in 2016, SmartCow is a rapidly-growing AI engineering company focused on AI pipelines on resource-constrained devices.

Its new product, SmartCam, delivers real-time occupancy analytics, such as people counting, path tracing and intrusion detection. This technology is adaptable for a wide variety of use cases and can be particularly valuable for brick-and-mortar retailers and smart factories.

"At SmartCow, we truly enjoy building scalable AIoT solutions because of our firm belief in their ability to transform the way we live and work," said Ravi Kiran, Founder and CEO of SmartCow. 

"We've been working with companies across the globe to build and deploy bespoke solutions, and through that work, we identified a clear need in the market for an edge AI camera that combines advanced compute capabilities with long-term durability, which is exactly what SmartCam delivers," he added.

Utilising NVIDIA Metropolis to create SmartCam

Built on the NVIDIA Metropolis application framework, SmartCam leverages the powerful capabilities of the NVIDIA Jetson edge AI platform lineup. This includes:

• Jetson Nano
• Jetson TX2 NX
• Jetson Xavier NX

As a result, customers using SmartCam have the ability to tailor deployments based on their unique computing needs.

"It is NVIDIA Metropolis elite partners like SmartCow that represent a new generation of application providers solving more critical industry problems and driving down costs by their leadership in leveraging NVIDIA's world-class AI tools and platforms," said Charbel Aoun, Director of Business Development (EMEA), NVIDIA. 

He continued: "We're impressed with SmartCow's ability to deliver advanced AI capabilities at the edge. SmartCam provides the right AI solutions to physical retailers, as an example, who want to make informed merchandising and staffing decisions while keeping their employees safe."

The NVIDIA Metropolis application framework makes it easier and cost-effective for developers, solution providers and integration partners to leverage world-class AI-enabled video analytics solutions. As a result, it improves critical operational efficiency and safety problems across a broad range of industries.

Reducing operation and energy costs with SmartCam

With help from NVIDIA, SmartCow has developed a product that supports its customers in a number of ways, including:

• Compact and rugged design to ensure optimal performance in any environment
• Crystal-clear night vision with an 8-meter range
• ONVIF-compliance to ensure complete privacy and data security
• Plug-and-play functionality for seamless integration and minimal installation costs
• An end-to-end integrated system built on an open platform to reduce deployment and maintenance costs by 50%

Occupancy analytics, as SmartCam provides, help reduce operational and energy costs by aligning staff, security, customer traffic, and business intelligence. 

The resulting insights enable retailers to understand shopper flow by measuring dwell-time and calculating store-level conversion rates. This means merchants can now test changes to in-store layouts and marketing displays, and immediately understand the impact vis-a-vis store performance.

As well as its SmartCam offering, SmartCow offers full-stack, turnkey solutions designed to address specific problems such as traffic congestion and weather forecasting.