Recently, AWS announced the general availability (GA) of AWS Panorama Appliance, a new device that customers can install in their facilities to run applications that analyze multiple video streams from existing on-premises cameras.
During re:Invent last year, AWS announced the AWS Panorama Appliance and SDK in preview for customers to bring computer vision to their on-premises cameras and make automated predictions with high accuracy and low latency. Now almost a year later, the company announces the GA.
The AWS Panora appliance is a device that can be used in various environments - including locations that do not have internet access. Users can register their device in the console or use an SDK for deployment, which allows them to do so without an internet connection.
In an AWS News blog post, Sébastien Stormacq, principal developer advocate at AWS, explains what the appliance and SDK provide for its users:
With the AWS Panorama Appliance, you can automate tasks that have traditionally required human inspection to improve visibility into potential issues. For example, you can use AWS Panorama Appliance to evaluate manufacturing quality, identify bottlenecks in industrial processes, and monitor workplace security even in environments with limited or no internet connectivity. In addition, the software development kit allows camera manufacturers to bring equivalent capabilities directly inside their IP camera.
Source: https://aws.amazon.com/panorama/
Other public cloud vendors besides AWS also focus on machine learning and other capabilities at the edge. For example, Microsoft positions Azure IoT Edge as a service to offload Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics workloads – and Google recently launched Distributed Cloud as a set of hardware and software solutions to extend Google infrastructure to the edge and into customer data centers.
Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of Amazon Machine Learning at AWS, said in a press release on AWS Panorama Appliance:
Organizations across all industries like construction, hospitality, industrial, logistics, retail, transportation, and more are always keen to improve their operations and reduce costs. Computer vision offers a valuable opportunity to achieve these goals, but companies are often inhibited by a range of factors including the complexity of the technology, limited internet connectivity, latency, and inadequacy of existing hardware. We built the AWS Panorama Appliance to help remove these barriers so our customers can take advantage of existing on-premises cameras and accelerate inspection tasks, reduce operational complexity, and improve consumer experiences through computer vision.
AWS Panorama Appliance is currently available for sale through AWS Elemental in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and the European Union. Additionally, the AWS Panorama service is available in the US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Canada (Central), and Europe (Ireland) regions, with availability in additional AWS Regions in the coming months. And lastly, pricing details are available on the pricing page.