Computer Vision (CV) technology will get a major boost from a new artificial intelligence (AI) chip that a team from The Institute of Photonics at The Vienna University of Technology just developed.  The chip combines light-sensing electronics with AI software on a single semiconductor that acts as a sensor.   A LITTLE BACKGROUND:                                                                                                                                                                                            Computer vision is what allows machines to "see".  Self driving cars, autonomous robots, and autonomous drones all use the technology.                            With CV, the sensors are the "eyes".  They take in video and images and degitize them.  Up to this point, these images had to be sent back to the cloud for processing.  Then the AI crunchess the date and sends back its analysis.  The challenge with this model is that it is energy intensive.  And there is a delay between input and output.  The delay occurs because everything is sent back to the cloud...Even data that is not useful to the AI.                                And that's where this new AI Tech comes in...This new chip allows the AI to process data from the sensors right on the spot.  If it encounters something unique, it will send that data back to the cloud for analysis, and data that are not useful will simply be discarded.                            In other words, the AI will operate at the edge of the Network and have "DISCRETION" about what it sends to the Cloud to be analysed.                          This will empower computer vision to process data much faster than it could before.  And it will reduce the amount of energy required because unnecessary data is filtered out.                                                                                                                                                                                               So we'll see this technology deployed in self-driving cars, factory automation systems, quality control systems, robots, drones, and any other area that employs computer vision.  It will lead to OPTIMIZED, ENERGY-EFFICIENT SYSTEMS!                                                                                                            Exerpt from  Jeff Brown - Silocon Valley's top Angel Investor