CEVA and Visidon to bring ultra-low power always-on face activation technology to mobile devices

MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA & OULU, FINLAND: CEVA Inc. and Visidon Ltd, a developer of industry-leading facial recognition technologies for mobile and embedded platforms, announced that the companies have partnered to develop an ultra-low power, 'always-on' face activation solution targeting mobile devices.

The solution combines Visidon's face activation software with the CEVA-TeakLite-4 sensor fusion platform to enable highly power efficient context aware applications that can activate a smartphone, tablet or any other camera-enabled device upon detecting the presence of a user's face. CEVA and Visidon will demonstrate this solution at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in CEVA's booth.

Face activation technology is set to become a key component of low-power sensor fusion applications, where a device can remain in standby mode while awaiting activation via visual presence or voice commands. In mobile devices, implementing these 'always-on' technologies utilizing absolute minimal power consumption is crucial, resulting in longer battery life for the device.

By utilizing the CEVA-TeakLite-4 sensor fusion platform rather than the main device CPU to implement Visidon's face activation software consumes less than 1mA at a 28nm process. In addition, by only using a fraction of the CEVA-TeakLite-4 available MHz, there is ample headroom on the processor to run additional applications in parallel, such as 'always-listening' voice activation.

"We are pleased to partner with CEVA to offer our face activation technology optimized for the CEVA-TeakLite-4 sensor fusion platform," said Markus Turtinen, CEO of Visidon. "CEVA's low-power leadership in DSP is key to bringing 'always-on' technologies to smartphones and wearable devices and we look forward to extending our partnership to address the growing demand for other face technologies in mobile devices."

"Ultra-low power consumption is the primary consideration for OEMs when adopting sensor fusion technologies for their future mobile devices, and our partnership with Visidon for an 'always-on' face activation solution meets the most stringent power requirements," said Eran Briman, VP of marketing at CEVA.

"With the addition of Visidon to our ecosystem of software partners, we are further enhancing the range of unique and differentiating solutions that our CEVA-TeakLite-4 sensor fusion platform can offer to improve the overall user experience of any device."