CognoVision


CognoVision Solutions Inc. was a Toronto-based provider of real-time audience measurement and retail intelligence solutions. The company created Anonymous Video Analytics software that uses small video cameras and real-time Computer vision algorithms to detect faces and people for measuring viewership of Digital signage or estimating traffic flow patterns in a retail store.
On November 15, 2010, it was announced that Intel Corporation, the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, had acquired CognoVision - the acquisition closed in September 2010. Intel Corporation announced August 8, 2011 that Anonymous Video Analytics from Cognovision would be the underlying technology powering their Intel AIM Suite service.

History

CognoVision was founded in 2006. The company was privately financed and was acquired by Intel Corporation in 2010.
The company was started by Haroon F. Mirza, Dr. Shahzad Malik, and Faizal Javer. The founders all met while students at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in 2000. Each founder independently relocated to Toronto - Malik completed his Ph.D. at University of Toronto, Javer was expanding a mattress manufacturing business from Western Canada to Ontario, and Mirza was working at Cadbury Adams.

Privacy

CognoVision's technology respects privacy by never recording images or video footage, and relying on pattern detection algorithms which match a particular face to a face in a database. Once the AVA program has determined pixel patterns of a human face, the software categorizes how long the display is viewed, the approximate gender and approximate age of the viewer.
However, the technology is often incorrectly compared to the retina scanners, like those in the film Minority Report, that privacy groups are pushing for legislation to prevent more intrusive biometric recognition technologies from becoming mainstream.

Milestones