Machine vision provider Movidius teams up with Lenovo for virtual reality products

Visual processor provider Movidius is partnering with computer giant Lenovo to develop virtual reality (VR) devices, the company said Tuesday.

The San Mateo, California-based company provides chips that help computers process more complicated visual information, including comprehension of gestures, recognising faces and sensing space and depth.

Visual recognition technology is on the verge of spreading widely to many industries such as consumer devices, security cameras and autonomous driving, according to Lin Renxiang, an analyst at Chinese research firm HCR.

“We want to be to [artificial intelligence] what Intel is to the PC and what Qualcomm is to mobile,” said Movidius chief executive Remi El-Ouazzane at the RISE conference in Hong Kong. Intel and Qualcomm are leading processor providers for desktop computers and smartphones, respectively

Under the partnership, Movidius provided its Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU), a dedicated chip that processes visual information, to Lenovo which incorporated the technology into a VR product line it will announce at the Lenovo Tech World event in San Francisco on June 9.

El-Ouazzane declined to reveal the new Lenovo products but said the collaboration will result in several VR products.

According to Movidius, its technology can be used in VR devices including head-mounted displays, multi-lens cameras and hand-held controllers.