Computer vision and intelligent transportation system company acquired by Ambarella

Ambarella, Inc, a developer of video compression and image processing semiconductors, has announced the acquisition of VisLab S.r.l., a privately-held company based in Parma, Italy for $30 million in cash.

VisLab, the Vision and Intelligent Systems Laboratory at the University of Parma, was founded by Professor Alberto Broggi and has developed computer vision and intelligent control systems for automotive and other commercial applications, including Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and several generations of autonomous vehicle driving systems. One such system, "Porter," is an autonomous vehicle that made a trip of more than 8,000 miles from Italy to China in 2010.

"Computer vision is an area of significant focus for Ambarella, and will be critical to our current video markets, as well as future markets such as automotive OEM cameras," said Fermi Wang, CEO of Ambarella. "We are delighted to welcome Dr. Broggi and the VisLab team to Ambarella to jointly define, develop and deploy future generations of computer vision solutions."

Professor Broggi also commented on the merger. "The unique combination of VisLab’s computer vision expertise and Ambarella’s high performance, power-efficient video processing technology will enable extremely powerful systems," he said. "We are very pleased to join Ambarella and to realize the full potential of our research and algorithms across a wide range of customers’ products."

VisLab’s 27 researchers will join Ambarella’s advanced computer vision development team, which will enable computer vision support in future Ambarella solutions targeting the company’s core markets including automotive, IP security, wearable, and flying cameras.

Ambarella develops low-power, HD and ultra HD video compression and image processing solutions. The products are used in a variety of cameras, including security IP ­cameras, sports cameras, wearable cameras, flying cameras and automotive video camera recorders. VisLab specializes in developing machine vision algorithms and intelligent systems primarily for the automotive field (intelligent transportation systems and vehicles.) It also does research in such fields as machine vision, pattern recognition, low-level imaging processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, and real-time systems.

View the press release.

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