"To Better Serve the Human, the AI Needs a Growing Understanding of Them" - Mindtronic AI CEO, Sharon Jiang

Today’s mobility solutions are packed with cutting-edge technologies that elevate driving from being a mundane task to an experience to remember. Since 2017, Mindtronic AI has been doing just this. This Taiwan-based company’s expertise lies in automotive-grade biometric recognition, computer vision, 3D, ultra-light deep learning engine for embedded systems, and autonomous driving frameworks.

It has been working on its automotive-grade designs built with AI deep learning for both cockpit design and sub-systems.

CEO, Sharon Jiang, likes to sum it up by simply saying that Mindtronic AI (MAI) is dedicated to bringing new-age AI technology to improve people’s life.

In fact, what the company has been doing so far in the automotive industry is to make driving safer and more fun, by building smart cabins and intelligent manoeuvrability with AI technologies.

“The core value of AI technology is to improve human efficiency in dealing with data and information, especially in present times, where mobile phones and the internet bring tons of information to an average human every minute. This becomes more critical in driving experience, which needs attention and focus of drivers on the road, instead of distraction by redundant incoming information," says Jiang.

MAI seeks to help humans by leveraging AI technology to prioritise data that is crucial while driving.

"To better serve the human, the AI needs a growing understanding of them, and that is where edge ML can help. We use embedded Machine Learning (ML) technology in the car cabin, which learns from the human and better understands them with each passing day. Thus, the machine will get smarter and smarter to know what priorities the human puts on data and information, and then selects and provides only more important data through filtering,” she says.

Building a Strong AI Engineering Team

MAI has two types of products in the automotive market. In the software space, the company structures its automotive products in four main platforms. The fundamental platform directly linked to hardware is a domain controller called Mason, which has hypervisor technology and other integrations in place.

Above Mason is the core AI engine called Eden, an edge computing Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Control Voltage (CV) toolkit.

“One particular aspect of Eden, and what makes our technology superior to peers, is the edge training or inference framework we created by ourselves. This compact but powerful framework contributes to deliver results that are more efficient and accurate, but with a lower consumption of computing resources, which is far more suitable for the automotive space,” explains Jiang.

There are two additional types of AI applications - one for cluster or infotainment UI/UX design called Noah, which can help automakers design their cabin more efficiently and with less investment of resources. The other for Driver Monitoring System (DMS) and Human Machine Interaction (HMI) called Horus, where you can find applications like DMS, facial recognition, palm recognition, emotion detection, personalisation, among others.

Interestingly, MAI was showered with attention at CES 2022 for its Meta-service Ecosystem.

“Meta-service allows AI technology to create a difference. In order to support the human with more valuable data without allowing distractions to shift their focus from driving, we can now capture the human’s object of interest on the road (E.g. a specific store or restaurant), find more valuable information about it (E.g. discount, parking space), and merge these information into the human’s attention focus on the windscreen. And so, we use a combination of reality (view of the store on the road through the windscreen) and virtual (text or graphic brief information displayed on windscreen by AR-HUD projection) to create a Meta-service in the car.”

Cutting-edge technology and its expertise with AI and ML is just one of the things that sets MAI apart, the other being its focus on user experience of its interfaces.

“Both ‘Horus’ and ‘Noah’ play important roles in satisfying customers’ needs. Our clients value what benefits or user experiences these new edge technologies can bring to their customers, and these new experiences may forge brand differentiation and reputation. We respect that, and try to create new values for our clients, through innovations on more and more new UX design and HMI technologies. Innovation is a core value of MAI,” explains Jiang.

For the last six years, MAI’s products haven’t just been showcased every year at the CES, but have gone on to bag the Innovation Award each year. In CES 2022, it had partnered with two major automotive panel suppliers for an in-vehicle smart cabin demo, featuring its work in areas like smart cockpit and advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), and showcased the potential of a 3D immersive bio-interactive UI.

In China, MAI technology has been accepted by a major auto OEM, and now is in process of mass production preparation. Globally, MAI is working with OEMs as well as Tier I and Tier 2 suppliers, in cooperation with IP transactions, POC design and implementation, or after-market product distribution.

But with a rapidly growing business, challenges are all but inevitable.

“Like all new technology startup companies, MAI is now struggling to meet the gap between clients’ growing demands, and is far too stretched on talent resources. As clients from Asia, America and Europe kept flooding in, we did not have time to hire and train enough engineers to put in place. But as we all know it, this is only temporary. Eventually, MAI will build a big, strong AI engineering team to help our clients with our cutting-edge technologies,” she says.

Enjoying Intelligent And Immersive Experiences

The boom of electric vehicles and the advent of autonomous vehicles holds tremendous potential for MAI. According to Jiang, with the rapidly growing number of electric vehicles globally, and the booming increase of computing capability in cars, partially autonomous vehicles (L2, L3 or L3+) will soon dominate the car market in near future.

MAI is all set to embrace autonomous driving when it does become a reality.

“We believe that even when fully autonomous driving will become a reality, the need to enjoy the pleasure of driving will still be there. Thus, we need technologies to enhance people’s driving experiences through seamless connection between humans and vehicles. That is why we have the awarded the technology ‘co-pilot’, which allows smooth manoeuvrability transition between human and car, by constantly monitoring human cognitive load and getting the system ready to take over the control of cars safely at any time that a potential risk appears.”

Speaking about the future, she adds: “Mindtronic AI is a technology company focusing on innovations, so we will continue dedicating our efforts in creating innovative technologies and applications and continue promoting these new technologies to help customers enjoy more intelligent and immersive experiences. With the global transition of the automotive industry from fossil fuel to electric, the newer generation of cars will need more AI technologies to manage vehicle controlling and interaction with humans."

"As a startup company aiming to pioneer this technology, we will be more proactively participating in the transition, and hope to contribute to create a safer, smarter and easier automotive industry," she adds.

“We see the future of AI technology brighter and more engaged with people’s daily life, and we will make preparations in technology maturity, talents, resources, and groundbreaking innovations to foster the arrival of the AI age,” concludes Jiang.