The company’s R&D team is led by several PhDs from U of T’s Department of Computer Science (DCS), who credit the department for providing them with the sound knowledge base used in developing their innovative product, the Anonymous Impression Metric (AIM) platform.
CognoVision provides the traditional world of retail with an innovative solution to measure the impact of in-store advertising and shopper behaviour. By using face detection and people tracking technology, AIM lets advertisers gauge the impact of their advertising by determining how many people saw their ads along with gender and age information, and lets retailers understand how many shoppers enter their stores by time of day, where in the stores they go, and how long they wait in line at the cash registers. Retailers and advertisers can then utilize the data to improve their services, increase product sales, optimize retail execution and reduce operational costs. AIM has been designed to fully respect privacy and does not record any images or video footage, only generating anonymous statistical data.
“U of T’s Department of Computer Science provides a graduate experience that is second to none,” said the company’s chief technology officer, DCS graduate Dr. Shahzad Malik. “Having access to world-class research facilities and faculty allows you to really push the boundaries of computer science and compete with the best minds in the field.”
Graduate Dr. Abhishek Ranjan, a senior software engineer, adds, “The problems we’re solving at CognoVision not only require a strong understanding of computer vision theory, but also an understanding of issues related to real-world usability and underlying business objectives. My experience at DCS really helped shape my thinking in this regard, since we have outstanding computer vision and human-computer interaction groups under the same roof. There aren’t many other computer science departments in the world that can provide this sort of broad research exposure.” (Ranjan is pictured on the right at RIA in March 2009.)
The company’s principals were thrilled to be recognized by CIX, a hub of Canadian innovation that showcases the newest technological innovations. CIX chose the Top 20 Most Innovative Companies in Canada through an exhaustive coast-to-coast selection process. By winning the votes of industry peers, CognoVision took home the exchange’s most sought after title, quite a coup for this young company.
Story by Amna Iqbal, DCS Undergraduate student and Work-Study Communications Assistant