Intel sparks move into VR realm with proposed Movidius acqusition

Intel is preparing itself for the next wave of computing with its proposed acquisition of Movidius Technology.

Josh Walden, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's New Technology Group made the announcement in a recent blog post.

He says the that we're currently entering an era where devices must be smart and connected.

"When a device is capable of understanding and responding to its environment, entirely new and unprecedented solutions present themselves. As part of our RealSense vision and strategy, we built and acquired critical technologies to ensure our leadership in computer vision and perceptual computing," he explains.

Walden points out that computer vision enables machines to visually process and understand their surroundings.

"Cameras serve as the "eyes" of the device, the central processing unit is the "brain," and a vision processor is the "visual cortex." Upon integration, computer vision enables navigation and mapping, collision avoidance, tracking, object recognition, inspection analytics and more – capabilities that are extremely compelling in emerging markets," he says.

To strengthen the shift, Walden explains that Intel's completed several acquisitions in machine learning, deep learning and cognitive computing to build a suite of capabilities that open an entirely new world of possibilities.

These possibilities range from recognising objects, to understanding scenes and from authentication to tracking and navigating.

"For this reason, I'm excited to announce our pending acquisition of Movidius. With Movidius, Intel gains low-power, high-performance SoC platforms for accelerating computer vision applications," says Walden.

"We see massive potential for Movidius to accelerate our initiatives in new and emerging technologies."