In 2023, Ac6 participated in Embedded World, the world’s leading trade fair for embedded systems. As part of our involvement, I was tasked with developing an innovative facial recognition program leveraging Artificial Intelligence, specifically designed to operate on an NXP development board. This board ran a custom operating system that I developed based on a Linux kernel, configured using the Yocto Project.
This project presented an exciting challenge, aiming to showcase our technological expertise and our ability to integrate advanced solutions within embedded environments. Facial recognition, powered by AI, represents a significant advancement in security and identity management applications. Our solution not only met the demanding technical requirements of the NXP board but was also successfully demonstrated at the Embedded World exhibition.
The development process involved several key stages:
- AI Model Selection and Optimization: Researching and selecting an appropriate AI model for facial recognition, considering factors such as accuracy, processing speed, and memory footprint suitable for an embedded system. Optimizations were crucial to ensure real-time or near real-time performance on the NXP hardware.
- Custom Linux Operating System Development: Utilizing the Yocto Project to build a tailored Linux distribution optimized for the NXP board and the specific requirements of the facial recognition application. This involved selecting necessary kernel modules, libraries, and system services while minimizing resource consumption.
- Software Integration: Developing the application logic to capture images from a connected camera (if applicable), pre-process the image data, feed it to the AI model for facial detection and recognition, and potentially trigger an action based on the recognition result. This required careful integration of the AI model with the custom operating system and hardware interfaces.
- Performance Tuning and Testing: Rigorous testing and performance tuning were conducted on the NXP board to ensure the facial recognition program operated reliably and efficiently within the constraints of the embedded system. This involved profiling the application to identify bottlenecks and implementing optimizations.
- Demonstration at Embedded World: Preparing and presenting the working facial recognition system at the Embedded World event, highlighting its capabilities, performance, and the underlying custom-built embedded system.
This project successfully demonstrated Ac6’s capabilities in:
- Artificial Intelligence on Embedded Systems: Implementing and optimizing AI algorithms for resource-constrained environments.
- Embedded Linux Development: Building and customizing Linux-based operating systems using the Yocto Project.
- Hardware-Software Integration: Effectively integrating software applications with specific hardware platforms.
- Innovation and Problem-Solving: Addressing the technical challenges of implementing advanced technologies in embedded systems.
The positive reception of our facial recognition program at Embedded World underscored Ac6’s commitment to innovation and our ability to deliver cutting-edge solutions in the embedded systems domain. This project serves as a strong example of my technical skills and my contribution to Ac6’s success at a major industry event.