Silicon Valley comes to Parma

VisLab, a spin-off of the University of Parma, Italy, has been acquired by US image processing systems developer Ambarella for US$30 million. VisLab, founded in 2009 and managed by Alberto Broggi, professor of the Department of Information Engineering, specialises in computer vision software, particularly for automotive applications. The company has won several awards for its research and for its challenges such as the 15,000 kilometres autonomous vehicle driving test from Parma to Shanghai in 2010.
July 13, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
7085 VisLab, a spin-off of the University of Parma, Italy, has been acquired by US image processing systems developer Ambarella for US$30 million.

VisLab, founded in 2009 and managed by Alberto Broggi, professor of the Department of Information Engineering, specialises in computer vision software, particularly for automotive applications. The company has won several awards for its research and for its challenges such as the 15,000 kilometres autonomous vehicle driving test from Parma to Shanghai in 2010.
 
In 2014, VisLab developed DEEVA, the latest prototype equipped with sensors and video cameras capable of perceiving and interpreting real time movements and objects around it and consequently deciding autonomously where to move at which speed.

VisLab believes the commercialisation of such technologies will revolutionise road transportation and will especially help increase road safety by reducing accidents caused by the human factor, or driver distraction and irresponsible attitudes

As part of the acquisition, VisLab and its research team will remain in Italy.

“We have constantly improved our technology through a series of road tests, such as the 2013 tour of Parma (from the University Campus to Piazzale della Pilotta) made by an autonomous self-driving vehicle without any human intervention,” says Professor Broggi. “Now, we are ready for industrialisation.”

“Computer vision is an area of significant focus for Ambarella and for our market,” says Fermi Wang, CEO of Ambarella. “It is very important for us to work in synergy with the University of Parma, where VisLab has been developed”.
Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision

Related Content

  • January 19, 2012
    Connected Vehicles test vehicle to vehicle applications
    In the US, the ITS Joint Program Office is about to conduct a series of Driver Clinics intended to gauge public reaction to Connected Vehicle safety technologies and applications. Starting in August, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) will test Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) applications with everyday drivers in what it describes as 'normal operational scenarios'. These Driver Clinics are being carried out at six locations across the US and together with the subsequent model deployment beginning in 2012,
    Read More
  • July 24, 2017
    Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin
    Read More
  • July 24, 2017
    Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin
    Read More
  • March 9, 2016
    Intersection monitoring from video using 3D reconstruction
    Researchers Yuting Yang, Camillo Taylor and Daniel Lee have developed a system to turn surveillance cameras into traffic counters. Traffic information can be collected from existing inexpensive roadside cameras but extracting it often entails manual work or costly commercial software. Against this background the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) was looking for an efficient and user-friendly solution to extract traffic information from videos captured from road intersections.
    Read More

Highlighted Content