Monday, October 7, 2024

iPod Inventor and Nest Founder Tony Fadell Backs Plumerai’s Tiny AI, Hailing It as a Massive Market Disruption Democratizing AI Technology Starting with Smart Home Cameras

Plumerai Announces Partnership with Chamberlain Group, the Largest Manufacturer of Automated Access Solutions found in 50+ million homes

Press release

London – October 7, 2024 - Plumerai™, a pioneer in on-device AI solutions since 2018, today announced a major partnership with Chamberlain Group, whose brands include myQ and LiftMaster, marking a significant milestone in the adoption of its Tiny AI technology.

To achieve features like People Detection and Familiar Face Identification, cloud-based AI and, in particular, Large Language Models (LLMs) require vast remote data centers, consume increasing amounts of energy, pose privacy risks, and incur rising costs. Plumerai’s Tiny AI can do all this on the device itself, is cost-effective, chip agnostic, capable of operating on battery-powered devices, doesn’t clog up your bandwidth with huge video uploads, and has minuscule energy requirements. Moreover, it boasts the most accurate on-device Tiny AI on the market and offers end-to-end encryption. Already running locally on millions of smart home cameras, Plumerai’s Tiny AI is making communities safer and lives more convenient, while proving that in AI, smaller can indeed be smarter. Plumerai has gained strong backing from early investor Tony Fadell, Principal at Build Collective along with Dr. Hermann Hauser KBE, Founder of Arm, and LocalGlobe.

“Tiny AI is a paradigm shift in how we approach artificial intelligence,” said Roeland Nusselder, Co-founder and CEO at Plumerai. “This approach allows us to embed powerful AI capabilities directly into smart home devices, enhancing security and privacy in ways that were once considered unfeasible. It’s not about making AI bigger - it’s about making it smarter, more accessible, and more aligned with people’s real-world needs."

Key Features of Plumerai’s Tiny AI on the Edge, No Cloud Required

• Person, Pet, Vehicle, and Package Detection notifications in .7 seconds vs. average smart cam 2-10 seconds. This may sound like an incremental improvement, but anyone who has a smart cam will appreciate this is a game-changer.
• Familiar Face Identification and Stranger Detection deliver accurate notifications while protecting privacy; tag up to 40 “safe” i.e. familiar individuals.
• Multi-Cam Person Tracking (first of its kind!) for comprehensive surveillance.
• Advanced Motion Detection with rapid response time of, on average, .5 seconds which greatly extends battery life.
• Over-the-Air updates for products in the field means faster Go-to-Market.

Plumerai has built the most accurate Tiny AI solution for smart home cameras, trained with over 30 million images and videos. Consistently outperforming competitors in every commercial shootout, Plumerai is the undisputed leader in both accuracy and compute efficiency. Internal test comparisons against a leading smart camera, widely regarded as the most accurate among established smart home players, revealed striking results: leading smart camera’s AI incorrectly identified strangers as household members in 2% of the recorded events, while Plumerai’s Familiar Face Identification made no incorrect identifications.

“Plumerai’s technology gives companies a significant edge in a competitive market, proving that efficient, on-device AI is the future of smart home security. It’s a perfect showcase for Tiny AI’s strengths - privacy, real-time processing, and energy efficiency. I’m excited by Plumerai’s potential to expand into other IoT verticals and redefine edge computing,” said Dr. Hermann Hauser KBE, Founder of Arm.

Providing a ready-to-integrate end-to-end solution for AI on the edge, Plumerai is making AI more competitive and a reality for more companies. This breakthrough provides consumers with more options outside the realm of big tech giants like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. Unlike other battery powered “smart” cams that send their video feed to the cloud over power-hungry Wi-Fi, Plumerai enables the use of low-power mesh networks to send notifications. With Plumerai, companies can easily change their chips without losing AI features.

“Integrating Plumerai’s Tiny AI into our smart camera lineup has allowed us to offer advanced AI features on affordable, low-power devices. This enables us to provide our customers with smarter, more efficient products that deliver high performance without the need for cloud processing,” said Jishnu Kinwar, VP Advanced Products at Chamberlain Group.

Notably, 11+ million people rely on Chamberlain’s myQ® app daily to access and monitor their homes, communities and businesses, from anywhere.

“Plumerai’s Tiny AI isn’t just an incremental advance – it’s a massive market disruption,” said Tony Fadell, Nest Founder and Build Collective Principal. “While Large Language Models capture headlines, Plumerai is getting commercial traction with its new smaller-is-smarter AI model. Their Tiny AI is faster, cheaper, more accurate, and doesn’t require armies of developers harnessing vast data centers.”

About Plumerai

Plumerai is a pioneering leader in embedded AI solutions, specializing in highly accurate and efficient Tiny AI for smart devices. As the market leader in licensable Tiny AI for smart home cameras, Plumerai powers millions of devices worldwide and is rapidly expanding into video conferencing, smart retail, security, and IoT sectors. Their comprehensive AI suite includes People Detection, Vehicle detection, Animal detection, Familiar Face Identification, and Multi-Cam Person Tacking, all designed to run locally on nearly any camera chip. Headquartered in London and Amsterdam and backed by Tony Fadell, Principal at Build Collective, Dr. Hermann Hauser KBE, Founder of Arm, and LocalGlobe. Plumerai enables developers to add sophisticated AI capabilities to embedded devices, revolutionizing smart technology while prioritizing efficiency and user privacy.

About Build Collective

Build Collective, led by Tony Fadell, is a global investment and advisory firm coaching engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs working on foundational deep technology. With 200+ startups in its portfolio, Build Collective invests its money and time to help engineers and scientists bring technology out of the lab and into our lives. Supporting companies beyond Silicon Valley, Build Collective’s portfolio is based mainly in the EU and US with some companies in Asia and the Middle East. From tackling food security, sustainability, transportation, energy efficiency, weather, robotics, and disease to empowering small business owners, entrepreneurs, and consumers, the startups in Build Collective’s portfolio are improving our lives and prospects for the future. With no LP’s to report to, the Build Collective team is hands-on and advises for the long-term.

About Chamberlain Group

Chamberlain Group is a global leader in intelligent access and Blackstone portfolio company. Our innovative products, combined with intuitive software solutions, comprise a myQ ecosystem that delivers seamless, secure access to people’s homes and businesses. CG’s recognizable brands, including LiftMaster® and Chamberlain®, are found in 50+ million homes, and 11+ million people rely on our myQ® app daily to control and monitor their homes, communities and businesses, from anywhere. Our patented vehicle-to-home connectivity solution, myQ Connected Garage, is available in millions of vehicles from the leading automakers.

Media Contact:

Elise Houren
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