In this interview, European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) President, Chris Yates, and Khronos Group President, Neil Trevett discuss the industry’s interest in the creation of open, royalty-free API standards for controlling embedded cameras and sensors.

In response to industry requests, the EMVA and The Khronos Group joined forced in February 2021 to form an Embedded Camera API Exploratory Group, open to all at no cost, to explore industry interest in the creation of open API standards for controlling embedded cameras and sensors. All participants — currently, 60 companies, with 145 representatives — are able to discuss use cases and requirements for new interoperability standards to accelerate market growth and reduce development costs in embedded markets using vision and sensor processing and associated acceleration. All sensor and camera manufacturers, silicon vendors, and software developers working on vision and sensor processing can participate in this initiative. If the exploratory group reaches significant consensus, then EMVA and Khronos will work together to initiate the proposed standardization initiatives at the appropriate organization.

Imagine & Machine Vision Europe (IMVE) sat down with Khronos President, Neil Trevett and EMVA President, Chris Yates to discuss the new exploratory group for embedded cameras and sensors. They discussed the scope of the new effort, what the groups hope to achieve, the exploratory group process, and why now.

The Exploratory Group is Hosted by EMVA and Khronos to explore the creation of open royalty-free API standards for controlling embedded cameras and sensors. It is open to any camera, sensor, and silicon vendors, together with system integrators and software developers with an interest in sensor processing applications.

Since its announcement in late February, the Exploratory Group membership has already grown to over 40 members, and has received a positive reception from the press:

• EE Times - Looking for APIs That Sit Between Sensors and Vehicle Apps?
  
• New Electronics - Exploratory Group to consider embedded camera and sensor API standards

Exploratory Group meetings start on March 25th and it is not too late to join. There is no cost, and any interested organization is welcome!

More details and instructions for joining the group are here.

Visualization specialist Benjamín Hernández in the Advanced Data and Workflow Group is leading OLCF’s involvement with the Analytic Rendering Exploratory Group within the Khronos Group. Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) recently joined this effort aimed at creating a standardized API for a visualization method called ray tracing, which models the way light behaves to create highly physically accurate images from datasets. The move would allow new visualization software programs and custom visualization codes to more easily run on any computing device—even those with drastically different architecture.

The Khronos Group has issued a call for participation in the newly formed Analytic Rendering Exploratory Group. The group has been formed to discuss the standardization of an Analytic Rendering API for data visualization. All interested parties are invited to participate, with no cost or IP obligations, to share perspectives, requirements and use cases to help determine whether there is an industry need for such an API and to help set the direction for any standardization activities. Learn more about what Analytic Rendering is why a new analytic rendering API is needed and what the goals of such a group might look like. If your company, or a company you know is interested in learning more and joining the Exploratory Group, you are invited to contact us.

With the growth and adoption in mobile, web, and immersive platforms, 3D is poised to grow as a new shopping medium. Product manufacturers, retailers, marketing, and advertising platforms can use 3D to show virtual products to end-users to help them better understand a product online prior to purchasing and to help build brand loyalty after purchase. The Khronos has a track record of openness and responsiveness, with a well-proven IP Framework and multi-company governance model. The Khronos 3D Commerce Exploratory Working Group could directly leverage the work of several existing Khronos Working Groups, including: glTF, WebGL, Vulkan, and OpenXR. With enough industry support, this Exploratory Group will evolve into a Working Group to work on the development of such standards.

NexTech AR Solutions announced that it joined an exploratory group of leading retailers, manufacturers, and technology companies in a groundbreaking collaboration to establish 3D commerce standards and guidelines. The exploratory group was formed by Khronos Group, an open consortium of leading companies creating advanced 3D standards, at the end of April.

The Khronos Group today announces the formation of an Exploratory Group to investigate the creation of standards and guidelines for the production and distribution of real-time 3D representations of products, so they can be experienced realistically and consistently across all platforms and devices, such as mobile, Web and Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) solutions. To gather industry input, the Exploratory Group is open to any company without cost or IP licensing obligations. If there is industry support, Khronos will form a Working Group to enable any interested company to join Khronos and participate under its proven multi-company governance process. Those interested in finding out more and joining the Exploratory Group are invited to visit the 3D Commerce Landing Page.

The traditional programming models and open standards for communications between processing elements have been left behind somewhat. The interconnect topologies have become more complex and fragmented. No longer is there a clear, unified communication standard that is suitable for all the new interfaces introduced by these heterogeneous architectures. Abaco felt no existing open standard API provided a unified solution. Abaco presented their case the Khronos Group proposing a new standard API called Takyon. Khronos has listened and created the “Heterogeneous Communications” Exploratory Group with a goal to gather industry support for development of a new standard and solicit additional proposals. Take a look and contribute here. For a more in-depth description of the problem, be sure to read Abaco’s blog “Behind the times”.

The Khronos Group, an open consortium of leading hardware and software companies creating advanced acceleration standards, today announces a request for industry feedback to gauge interest in developing a new low-level, heterogeneous communications open standard that could transform the way applications are developed for High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) systems. If there is industry support, then Khronos would create a working group and invite any interested company to participate for a voice and a vote in creating and evolving a multi-vendor standard under Khronos’ proven multi-company governance process. Those interested in finding out more and providing feedback are invited to visit the Khronos Heterogeneous Communication feedback page.