AWS Announces general availability of the AWS Panorama Appliance
Amazon Web Services has announced the general availability of the AWS Panorama Appliance, a new device that customers can install in their facilities to run applications that analyze multiple video streams from existing on-prem cameras. The AWS Panorama Appliance enables customers to use computer vision technology to quickly and easily perform visual inspections of production lines, enhance customer experiences at quick service restaurants, or optimize the layout of physical retail stores.
According to AWS, customers in industrial, hospitality, logistics, retail, and other industries want to use computer vision to make decisions faster and optimize their operations. These organizations typically have cameras installed onsite to support their businesses, but they often resort to manual processes such as watching video feeds in real time to extract value from their network of cameras, which is tedious, expensive, and difficult to scale. While some smart cameras can provide real-time visual inspection, replacing existing cameras with new smart cameras can be cost prohibitive.
The AWS Panorama Appliance enables customers to improve their operations and reduce costs by using existing on-prem cameras and analyzing video streams locally with computer vision. Because the computer vision processing happens locally on the AWS Panorama Appliance at the edge, customers can save on bandwidth costs and use it in locations with limited internet bandwidth. Additionally, the AWS Panorama Appliance is integrated with Amazon SageMaker (an AWS service that makes it easy for data scientists and developers to build, train, and deploy machine learning models), so customers can update their computer vision application in Amazon SageMaker and deploy the model to the AWS Panorama Appliance themselves.
For customers that do not want to build their own computer vision applications, AWS Panorama Partners such as Deloitte, TaskWatch, Vistry, Sony, and Accenture provide a wide range of solutions that can address unique use cases across manufacturing, construction, hospitality, retail, and other industries. For example, customers in the retail industry have used AWS Panorama Partners to develop computer vision applications that can analyze foot traffic to help optimize store layout and product placement, analyze peak times when additional staffing is needed to assist customers, and quantify inventory levels.
“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,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of Amazon Machine Learning at AWS. “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.”
For more information, go to https://aws.amazon.com/panorama.