CognoVision Solutions Inc. was a

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

-based provider of real-time

audience measurement Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Some ...

and

retail intelligence Retail Intelligence is the set of tools and applications focused on the creation and management of knowledge through the recollection, processing, interaction and analysis of information generated in all operations performed by any retailer. R ...

solutions. The company created

Anonymous Video Analytics Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anony ...

(AVA) software that uses small video cameras and real-time

Computer vision Computer vision is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate t ...

algorithms to detect faces and people for measuring viewership of

Digital signage Digital signage is a segment of electronic signage. Digital displays use technologies such as LCD, LED, projection and e-paper to display digital images, video, web pages, weather data, restaurant menus, or text. They can be found in publi ...

or estimating traffic flow patterns in a retail store. On November 15, 2010, it was announced that

Intel Corporation Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 series ...

, the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, had acquired CognoVision - the acquisition closed in September 2010.

announced August 8, 2011 that Anonymous Video Analytics from Cognovision would be the underlying technology powering their Intel AIM Suite service.

History

CognoVision was founded in 2006. The company was privately financed and was acquired by

in 2010. The company was started by Haroon F. Mirza (CEO), Dr. Shahzad Malik (CTO), and Faizal Javer (President & COO). The founders all met while students at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning Worl ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Ontario, Canada in 2000. Each founder independently relocated to Toronto - Malik completed his Ph.D. at

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

, Javer was expanding a mattress manufacturing business from Western Canada to Ontario, and Mirza was working at

Cadbury Adams Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after M ...

Privacy

CognoVision's technology respects privacy by never recording images or video footage, and relying on

pattern detection Pattern recognition is the automated recognition of patterns and regularities in data. It has applications in statistical data analysis, signal processing, image analysis, information retrieval, bioinformatics, data compression, computer graphic ...

algorithms that only look for general characteristics of a human face rather than features which can uniquely identify an individual. Once the AVA program has determined pixel patterns of a human face, the software categorizes how long the display is viewed, the approximate gender and approximate age of the viewer. However, the technology is often incorrectly compared to the retina scanners, like those in the film

Minority Report Minority Report may refer to: * Minority report (Poor Law), published by the UK Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–09 * "Minority Report", a 1949 science fiction short story by Theodore Sturgeon * "The Minority Report" ...

, that privacy groups are pushing for legislation to prevent more intrusive

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

recognition technologies from becoming mainstream.

Milestones

* May 2006 - CognoVision founded * Apr 2007 - CognoVision ranked as semi-finalist in

TiE Tie has two principal meanings: * Tie (draw), a finish to a competition with identical results, particularly sports * Necktie, a long piece of cloth worn around the neck or shoulders Tie or TIE may also refer to: Engineering and technology * Ti ...

Quest 2007 Business Venture Competition * June 2007 - CognoVision ranked 2nd in

MaRS Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmos ...

Upstart Contest * Feb 2008 - CognoVision launched its solutions at the Digital Signage Expo 2008 * Oct 2008 - CognoVision-powered nCAP wins Artisan Complete a 2008 DIGI Award for Best Product with Audience Measurement * Mar 2009 - CognoVision wins rAVe DS 2009 Champ Award: Most innovative DS software product: CognoVision's AIM System * Nov 2009 - CognoVision wins 2009 DIGI Award for Best New Audience Measurement Package * Nov 2009 - CognoVision named to the CIX Top 20 Innovative Companies of 2009 * Dec 2009 - Canadian Innovation Exchange names CognoVision as Canada's 2009 Digital Media and Innovation Leader * Mar 2010 - CognoVision wins rAVe DS 2010 Champ Award: Best DS Software Add-on App * Apr 2010 - Branham300 names CognoVision to Top 20 ICT Up & Coming CompaniesBranham300 2010 List.
Branham300 Top 25 Canadian ICT Up and Comers
" Apr 6, 2010. * Sep 2010 - CognoVision acquired by

References

External links

Intel Digital Signage homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cognovision Companies established in 2006 Companies based in Toronto Audience measurement Intel acquisitions