Drones That See -- Sighthound Releases Sentry D Computer Vision Engine for Drones

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Jan 5, 2016) - Sighthound, Inc. today announced the release of Sighthound Sentry D, a version of its Sentry computer vision engine specifically designed for flying cameras. The system allows a drone to follow people or objects autonomously based on what it sees.

Sighthound Sentry is highly versatile software deployed on embedded devices, computers or in the cloud which uses state-of-the-art computer vision to interpret the video stream from a camera feed. The Sentry D variant has been specifically adapted to be able to detect, classify and track people and objects from moving cameras.

Sighthound has worked with Ambarella, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMBA), the world's leading provider of low-power, high-definition video compression and image processing solutions, to deploy Sentry D on Ambarella's A9SE 4k Ultra HD platform. As a result, Sentry D can process the video stream from a drone's onboard camera to look for humans and objects and accurately track them. The output of the computer vision algorithms is then fed to the drone's flight control systems so that the drone can autonomously follow the person or object being tracked. The result is the ability to follow and view the subject more closely and with better camera centering than current GPS based approaches, in environments with little or no GPS signal, and with greater flexibility than hardware tethered alternatives. Sighthound will be showing the autonomous drone at a private Ambarella event during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from January 6^th to 9^th.

"The Sentry D computer vision engine enables highly accurate person and object tracking whilst the camera is moving," said Stephen Neish, Sighthound's CEO. "Combined with the advanced imaging and video capabilities of Ambarella's latest Ultra HD A9SE system-on-chip, it will enable autonomous follow-me capability in the next generation of flying cameras."

Sentry D extends to moving cameras the capabilities of Sighthound Sentry, the embedded computer vision engine used by OEMs to add intelligence to their cameras for the home automation and security markets. Sighthound also provides Sighthound Cloud, a comprehensive set of computer vision APIs for developers, and Sighthound Video, advanced computer vision security software for homes and businesses.

About Sighthound

Sighthound makes sense of movement through our world. By building state-of-the-art computer vision research into easy-to-use software, Sighthound makes it easy for computers to see. www.sighthound.com