The Idiap Research Institute is a semi-private non-profit

research institute A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

based in

Martigny Martigny (; , ; ) is the capital city of the district of Martigny (district), Martigny, cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Valais, Valais, Switzerland. It lies at an elevation of , and its population is approximately 20,000 inhabitants ( ...

, in the canton of

Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...

, Switzerland. It conducts research in the areas of

speech processing Speech processing is the study of speech signals and the processing methods of signals. The signals are usually processed in a digital representation, so speech processing can be regarded as a special case of digital signal processing, applied to ...

computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...

information retrieval Information retrieval (IR) in computing and information science is the task of identifying and retrieving information system resources that are relevant to an Information needs, information need. The information need can be specified in the form ...

biometric authentication Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics and features. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used t ...

multimodal interaction Multimodal interaction provides the user with multiple modes of interacting with a system. A multimodal interface provides several distinct tools for input and output of data. Multimodal human-computer interaction involves natural communicati ...

and

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

. The institute is affiliated with the

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland". Like its sister institution E ...

(EPFL), and with the

Université de Genève The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology unti ...

.Fondation de l'Institut de Recherche Idiap (Foundation of the Idiap Research Institute)
(in French). Confédération suisse: répertoire électronique des fondations. Accessed September 2014.

History

The institute was founded as the Istituto Dalle Molle di Intelligenza Artificiale Percettiva () in 1991 by the Italian entrepreneur

Angelo Dalle Molle Angelo Dalle Molle (4 November 1908 – 2001) was an Italian businessman and Utopian philanthropist. In 1952 he invented and patented Cynar, a bitter aperitivo based on artichoke leaves. Business life Dalle Molle was born in Mestre, on the ...

through the Fondation Dalle Molle, in collaboration with the

and with local, cantonal and federal government bodies. Its purpose was to investigate the application of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

to human perception in general, and to recognition and analysis of patterns in particular. In 1996, with the participation of the town of

, the

canton of Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...

, the EPFL, the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

and

Swisscom Swisscom is a major telecommunications provider in Switzerland. Its headquarters are located in Worblaufen near Bern. The Swiss government owns 51% of Swisscom. According to its own published data, Swisscom holds a market share of 56% for mob ...

, it became a research foundation independent of the Dalle Molle foundation, and shortly after changed its name to Idiap Research Institute.Research Institute Idiap, Martigny
Fondation Dalle Molle. Accessed September 2014. Idiap is one of the four Swiss research organisations founded by the Dalle Molle foundation, of which three are in the field of artificial intelligence.

Research

Idiap was home to the National Centre of Competence in Research IM2 project on "Interactive Multimodal Information Management".The Swiss National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) on Interactive Multimodal Information Management (IM2)
Idiap Research Institute. Accessed September 2014. The institute receives federal support as a research facility in the field of artificial intelligence. In 2020, researchers from the Idiap were developing software to detect deepfakes, as part of a broader effort to identify manipulated facial and vocal content in videos. The institute also participated in a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

-sponsored challenge to advance detection tools.

Collaborations

In 2022, the Idiap Research Institute became a partner institution of the

Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an academic not-for-profit foundation which federates bioinformatics activities throughout Switzerland. The institute was established on 30 March 1998 and its mission is to provide core bioinform ...

(SIB). The agreement was established to strengthen collaboration in applying artificial intelligence to biological and

biomedical data science Biomedical data science is a multidisciplinary field which leverages large volumes of data to promote biomedical innovation and discovery. Biomedical data science draws from various fields including Biostatistics, Biomedical informatics, and machin ...

, and to facilitate access to SIB's national network of expertise. As part of the partnership, Idiap also gained representation on SIB’s Foundation Council.

References

{{authority control Information technology research institutes Research institutes in Switzerland Martigny Buildings and structures in Valais University of Geneva Educational institutions established in 1991 Research institutes established in 1991 1991 establishments in Switzerland