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OPPO has 7 papers selected and wins 8 challenges at CVPR 2022

OPPO

Seven papers submitted by OPPO were selected for presentation at the 2022 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference, breaking a new record for the company. The selected papers cover OPPO’s various R&D breakthroughs in a range of artificial intelligence disciplines OPPO received a total of eight prizes in the CVPR challenges, including three first-place, one second place, and four third place prizes SHENZHEN, CHINA - Media OutReach - 23 June 2022 - The annual Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR) came to an end in New Orleans today, with globally leading technology company OPPO successfully having seven of its submitted papers selected for the conference, putting it among the most successful technology companies at the event. OPPO also placed in eight of the widely watched competition events at the conference, taking home three first place, one second place, and four third place prizes. As deep learning technology has developed over the years, artificial intelligence has shifted from perceptual intelligence to cognitive intelligence. In addition to being able to ‘see’ or ‘hear’ like humans, modern AI technology is now able to demonstrate a similar level of cognitive ability to humans too. Multimodal fusion, 3D visual intelligence technology, and automated machine learning are becoming key research topics in the field of AI, and areas in which OPPO has achieved several theoretical and technological breakthroughs of its own. “In 2012, deep neural networks designed for image recognition tasks re-energized the research and application of artificial intelligence. Since then, AI technology has seen a decade of rapid development.” said Guo Yandong, Chief Scientist in Intelligent Perception at OPPO.“OPPO continues to promote artificial intelligence to accomplish complex perceptual and cognitive behaviors. For example, AI can learn from unlabeled massive data and realize downstream migration and reconstruct 3D information from several limited perspectives. We also empower AI with higher cognitive abilities to understand and create beauty and develop embodied AI with autonomous behavior. I’m delighted to see that seven of our papers have been selected for this year’s conference. Building on this success, we will continue to explore both fundamental AI and cutting-edge AI technology, as well as the commercial applications that will enable us to bring the benefits of AI to more people.” The Seven papers accepted by CVPR 2022 showcase OPPO‘s progress in creating humanizing AI Seven papers submitted by OPPO for this year’s CVPR were selected for presentation at the conference. Their areas of research include multimodal information interaction, 3D human body reconstruction, personalized image aesthetics assessment, knowledge distillation, and others. Cross-modal technology is seen as the key to ‘humanizing’ artificial intelligence. Different modal data have different characteristics. Text information often features a high level of generality, whereas visual image information contains a large amount of specific contextual details. It is a great challenge to establish effective interaction for multimodal data. OPPO researchers proposed a new CRIS framework based on the CLIP model to enable AI to get a more fine-grained understanding of the text and image modal data. The model can achieve an accurate match of a piece of relevant visual information in an image after feeding the complex text descriptions. The biggest difference between human and artificial intelligence today lies in multimodality. Human beings are able to easily understand information in both words and images and draw associations between the two types of information. AI on the other hand is currently unable to move past the identification stage and finds it difficult to accurately match information between different modes. The novel method proposed by OPPO improves multimodal intelligence, which could potentially lead to artificial intelligence being able to truly understand and interpret the world through multiple forms of information such as language, hearing, vision, and others, making the robot and digital assistants of sci-fi movies become a reality. CRIS: CLIP-Driven Referring Image Segmentation 3D human body reconstruction is another area in which the OPPO Research Institute has made significant progress. At CVPR, OPPO demonstrated a process for automatically generating digital avatars of humans with clothing that behaves more naturally. The solution was achieved by improving the NeRF dynamic character model method. By analyzing RGB video of humans captured with a camera, the OPPO model can accurately generate 3D, 1:1 dynamic models that include small details like logos or fabric textures. Creating accurate 3D models of clothes has remained one of the biggest challenges in the field of AI due to the difficulty in observing the deformation of clothes depending on the posture of those wearing them. This makes it difficult for AI to recognize and distinguish the deformation in certain parts of clothing, for example, a hemline. The new model effectively reduces the requirements needed to perform 3D human body reconstruction, providing technical foundations that can be applied to areas such as virtual dressing rooms for online shopping, AI fitness instruction, and the creation of lifelike avatars in VR/AR worlds. Structured Local Radiance Fields for Human Avatar Modeling AI image recognition has now reached a stage where it can accurately identify a wide range of objects within an image. However, the next challenge in this area is developing AI that is capable of interpreting an image for its aesthetic value. The ability of AI to evaluate images in terms of their perceived aesthetic quality is often strongly related to the big data used in training the AI model. As a result, ‘opinions’ provided by AI are often not to everyone’s taste, and in many cases, models have been shown to demonstrate clear biases. This has led to the development of more refined data and models that take into account the diverse preferences of different people. In collaboration with Leida Li, a professor from Xidian University, the OPPO Research Institute brought the solution to this problem, which is the innovative Personalized Image Aesthetics Assessment (PIAA) model. The model is the first to optimize AI aesthetics assessment by combining users' subjective preferences with more generalized aesthetic values. The algorithm can perform personalized image evaluations based on preferences learned by studying user profiles. In the future, the model will be used to create personalized experiences for users, not just limited to the curation of photo albums, but also provide recommendations on how to shoot the best photo and which content a user might prefer. Personalized Image Aesthetics Assessment with Rich Attributes OPPO has also chosen to make the PIAA model evaluation data set the open source for developers, with a number of research institutions and universities already expressing an interest in using the data to further their own efforts in personalized AI aesthetic assessment. Further to this, OPPO also proposed a multi-view 3D semantic plane reconstruction solution capable of accurately analyzing surfaces within a 3D environment. The technology can recognize semantic characteristics of different surfaces, such as the ground, desktops, and walls, to a much higher degree of precision than current mainstream single-view reconstruction architecture. Developed in partnership with Tsinghua University, the INS-Conv (INcremental Sparse Convolution) can achieve faster and more accurate online 3D semantic and instance segmentation. This can effectively reduce the computing power needed to perform environment recognition, which will enable such technology to be more easily adopted in applications such as automated driving and VR. OPPO makes AI ‘lightweight’ with second place win in the NAS Challenge Alongside the presentation and review of the latest research in computer vision and pattern recognition technology, CVPR 2022 also saw a number of technical challenges take place, with OPPO placing third and above in eight challenges. These include the neural architecture search (NAS) challenge, SoccerNet, SoccerNet Replay Grounding, ActivityNet temporal localization, the 4 th Large-scale Video Object Segmentation Challenge, the ACDC Challenge 2022 on semantic segmentation in adverse visual conditions, and WAD Argoverse2 Motion Forecasting. From mobile photography to automated driving, deep learning models are being applied in an increasingly large pool of industries. However, deep learning relies heavily on big data and calculation power and consumes a lot of cost, both of which present challenges to its commercial implementation. Neural architecture search (NAS) techniques can automatically discover and implement optimal neural network architectures, reducing the dependence on human experience and other inputs to enable truly automated machine learning. In the NAS competition, OPPO researchers trained a supernetwork of 45,000 sub neural networks to inherit the parameters of the supernetwork by optimizing the Model Parameter Forgetting and the Unfair Gradient Descent Problem, achieving a high level of consistency between subnetworks performance and performance ranking, ranking second place among all entrants. Using the NAS technique, researchers only need to train a large supernetwork and create a predictor to let the subnetworks learn by inheriting the supernetwork parameters. This provides an efficient and low-cost approach to obtaining a deep learning model that outperforms those manually designed by expert network architects. This technology can be applied to most current artificial intelligence algorithms and can help AI technology typically requiring a large amount of computing power to be implemented on mobile devices by optimizing the neural architecture search to search for architects that perform well under specific conditions. This will ultimately bring previously unthinkable levels of AI technology to mobile devices in the near future. In addition to its success in the NAS challenge, OPPO also took first place in the SoccerNet Replay Grounding challenge and third place in the SoccerNet Action Spotting challenge, following second place wins in both categories at CVPR last year. During CPVR 2022, OPPO also participated in seminar presentations and three high-level workshops. At the SLAM seminar, OPPO researcher Deng Fan shared how real-time vSLAM could be run on smartphones and AR/VR devices. OPPO researcher Li Yikang also delivered a speech at the mobile artificial intelligence seminar and presented OPPO’s method for performing unsupervised cross-modal hashing between video and text. Named CLIP4Hashing, this method presents an important approach to performing cross-modal search on mobile devices. In AICITY Workshop, Li Wei proposed a multi-view based motion localization system to identify abnormal behavior of drivers while driving. OPPO is bringing the benefits of AI to more people, sooner This is the third year that OPPO has participated at CVPR. Over the past three years, AI research has undergone a dramatic shift from the development of specific applications like facial recognition, to more fundamental technologies that have wider reaching implications. OPPO’s rising success at CVPR during these three years owes much to its continued investment in AI technology. OPPO first began investing in AI development in 2015, establishing R&D teams dedicated to language & semantics, computer vision, and other disciplines. At the beginning of 2020, the Institute of Intelligent Perception and Interaction was established under the OPPO Research Institute to further deepen OPPO’s exploration of cutting-edge AI technologies. Today, OPPO has more than 2,650 global patent applications in the field of AI, covering computer vision, speech technology, natural language processing, machine learning and more. Guided by its brand proposition, ‘Inspiration Ahead’, OPPO is also working with partners across the industry to take AI technology from the laboratory into daily life. In December 2021, OPPO launched its first self-developed dedicated imaging NPU, MariSilicon X. The NPU boasts both powerful computing performance and high energy efficiency to enable complex AI algorithms to be run at unprecedented speeds on mobile devices, delivering superior video quality through advanced night video and other image processing algorithms. OPPO’s AI technology has also been used to develop products and features such as the real-time spatial AR generator CybeReal, OPPO Air Glass, Omoji, and more. Through these technologies, OPPO is aiming to create more lifelike digital worlds that combine virtual and reality to create all-new experiences for users. Contact Details OPPO Media Contact press@oppo.com

June 22, 2022 09:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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SolidusX revolutionizes Cryptocurrency trading for its users

SolidusX

SolidusX takes a step forward in the Cryptocurrency trading Recent events have shown that in the cryptocurrency market there is no sure value that guarantees a stable profit for the future. Right now there are many cryptocurrencies very attractive to invest both short-term and long-term. Knowing each of these assets and acquiring a better understanding of why users should invest in them is something that many trading platforms do not offer to their users. The cryptocurrency investment boom led many platforms to pop up and offer minimal services for the user's fruitful investment. These services were limited to graphs that compared and studied the evolution of different currencies. Without giving more information about what this volatility was due to or giving support to the user at the time whether or not he should invest in certain currencies. This is where SolidusX takes a step forward and innovates in the way users can invest in the cryptocurrency market. A Crypto trading platform that cares about users' profits What differentiates SolidusX from other crypto trading platforms is that it has great advantages in terms of customer satisfaction, since it is not only looking for a commission for trading on its platforms with limited services, but SolidusX have followed a client-oriented approach, placing the interests and benefits of clients as the primary objective of the company. The SolidusX team business model is geared towards being among the best online trading platforms in the cryptocurrency industry and demonstrating its reputation as a trading platform that supports clients in their investment decisions. Without a doubt, this is an added value that places it among one of the top crypto trading platforms today. They offer advice for making the most out of any crypto investment. Providing support and guidance to the user in order to help reach bigger profits and making sure they don't feel alone. In the cryptocurrency industry it is always positive to count with a professional back up when making any decisions about trading cryptos. Advantages of trading Cryptos with SolidusX With state-of-the-art customer support in the market, SolidusX provides even more advantages so that the experience of trading cryptos with them is unique and fruitful for users. Among the numerous advantages that they offer on their platform, we can highlight the following: Firstly, joining an already massive list of trading instruments, including forex, crypto, commodities, stock indices, and more, comes altcoins Solana, Polkadot, Cardano, Dogecoin, Binance, Dashcoin, and XRP. Each of the listed altcoins trades against USD, with select pairs available trading against BTC. All this accompanied with SolidusX professional trading tools, built-in charting software and the ability to access both traditional and crypto markets from a single account. The advantage of having all in one is that traders do not have to deal with multiple platforms. The main goal of this concept is to make traders have everything under one roof, which facilitates trading and investing. Secondly, it offers a NEW crypto trading news section integrated directly on the platform with more than 30 news per day, with an advanced and customizable charting user interface, including a multiple screen mode to view different markets at once for an advanced crypto trading experience. Moreover, SolidusX crypto trading is available globally in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, and the UK. Finally, SolidusX provides a much more reasonable leverage through liquidity providers in a way that offers both safety and clarity while trading this hyper-volatile asset class. SolidusX, a safe and legit Crypto trading platform Before starting to make investments on Cryptocurrencies, it is important to do research and check reviews and opinions about the different crypto trading platforms. The rise of these platforms brought many benefits to users. But also many were the target of scams and scandals. In this case, SolidusX presents everything that a secure website should have. On one hand, they are backed by Solidus Capital and powered by Devexperts, consolidated companies in the market that offer security guarantees to all their users. On the other hand, the main objective of SolidusX is for their users to reach the most profit possible, with this orientation in mind, the security they offer when clients make investments gives them enormous guarantees. In addition, ensures clients get their full amounts transacted from exchanges regardless of market volatility. This policy is somewhat unique and while clients don’t get possible gains from Bitcoin moving up while funding the account, it does protect clients against possible price drops while moving money into their trading accounts. Apart from this, SolidusX has gained a great reputation due to the services they offer to their clients thanks to their human support and guidance. This added value has meant that, apart from getting more and more clients, they have seen in SolidusX as a partner they can trust when it comes to trading cryptos. All in all, SolidusX have revolutionized the way of trading cryptos thanks to their technology combined with the human support that their professionals offer to users. A reliable company adapted to both advanced and beginner traders. Contact Details James Fisher +44 20 8154 3483 investors@solidusx.com Company Website https://solidusx.com/

June 22, 2022 04:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Microbusinesses Drive Local Economies

YourUpdateTV

There are over 20 million microbusinesses in the United States. According to a recent study by GoDaddy’s Venture Forward research initiative, about half of the microbusinesses in the country are run by solopreneurs and around 94 percent have 10 or fewer employees. But their impact is bigger than you think. Recently, Jeremy Hartman the Vice President of Venture Forward at GoDaddy and Alexandra Rosen the Senior Director of Venture Forward conducted a satellite media tour to help shine a light on microbusinesses, their impact on local economies, and the work GoDaddy is doing to empower entrepreneurs across the nation. A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/S4TF6UDwD8U At the beginning of the pandemic, entrepreneurs faced unexpected and unprecedented challenges as many had to move online and adjust their nascent businesses for the new rules of COVID living. Yet over the last two years, these business owners - many of them running microbusinesses made up of 10 employees of less - refused, again and again, to let the pandemic define them; rather, they’ve exhibited the creativity, imagination, hard work, and resiliency that are the hallmark of all successful entrepreneurs. And as they’ve succeeded, this rapidly growing movement of over 20 million microbusinesses is having a substantial impact on the economy, especially in their local communities. Venture Forward has collected data on these microbusinesses since 2018 to better understand how they are doing - and what more that local policymakers and economic developers can do to fuel their growth. According to Venture Forward, about half of all microbusinesses are run by solopreneurs and around 90 percent have 10 or fewer employees. Because many of these businesses have never registered with a government entity, they’re often excluded in official measures of small businesses - meaning many of them succeed based on true people power through hard work, family and personal loans, and access to web and online tools that make online commerce easier and more accessible. The Venture Forward team recently launched the Microbusiness Data Hub to help shine a light on this audience, providing an easily accessible location for anyone to download millions of data points and insights collected from microbusinesses across the country and in Great Britain. This data hub can provide a better understanding of the microbusiness community and help inform policies. At the most recent U.S. Conference of Mayors, Jeremy Hartman announced the launch of GoDaddy Open, where they’ll be taking their expertise in empowering everyday entrepreneurs on the road. GoDaddy Open started as a one-day immersive experience for entrepreneurs focused on those who were seeking ways to start or pivot their business during the pandemic. It has continued to evolve, but remains dedicated to providing entrepreneurs with resources, tools and inspiration. When entrepreneurs have access to relevant training, their businesses thrive! Venture Forward’s research has revealed that 67% of microbusiness owners who receive training at GoDaddy reported at least one positive outcome. o 44% Got more customers o 28% Improved internal processes o 26% Grew revenue o 16% Increased profitability Go to godaddy.com/ventureforward to learn more about Venture Forward and explore the data platform hub. --------------------------- About Jeremy Hartman Jeremy Hartman is the Vice President of Venture Forward at GoDaddy. He was hired to help GoDaddy better advocate on behalf of its 20 million microbusiness customers by quantifying and communicating their impact on the global economy. Jeremy has over two decades of experience developing communication platforms for companies, non-profits and political candidates. Prior to GoDaddy, Jeremy was Director of Applied Thought Leadership at Cisco, chartered to raise Cisco’s relevancy among key influencers. His background originated in politics, where he served as a senior campaign advisor to State and Federal candidates. Jeremy holds a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s degree from Northwestern University. About Alexandra Rosen Alexandra Rosen is the Senior Director of Venture Forward, GoDaddy’s multi-year research initiative focused on entrepreneurs and their impact on the economy. Prior to GoDaddy, she collaborated with organizations across live entertainment, the Olympics, enterprises and the public sector to launch several first-to-market programs and partnerships as a global manager at Cisco. These included international skills training, new digital platforms and innovative technology deployments. Passionate about empowering people and businesses to reach new goals through technology, creativity, and connected experiences, Alex is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator. She completed her undergraduate degree at Stanford University and her MBA at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

June 22, 2022 02:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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India’s largest open marketplace for road transportation Vahak loads up $14m series A funding round

Vahak

Goods worth billions are transported across India’s roads every day and driving this supply chain is India’s largest open road transport marketplace Vahak. The company today announced its $14m Series A fundraise as it scales operations with a sharp focus on supplier well-being and sustainability. Nexus Venture Partners led the funding round with participation from Foundamental, iSeed Ventures, Leo Capital, RTP Global, & Titan Capital. Vahak has now raised a total of $20.3m since its first round in March 2020. The funding will be used for rapid user-base expansion, building a stellar tech infrastructure by incorporating AI, ML, Big Data, and providing additional value-added services. Vahak aims to create an all-encompassing ecosystem for truck suppliers and become the go-to digital solution for them. Founded by Karan Shaha and Vikas Chandrawat in 2019, Vahak is a free-to-use, open marketplace for shippers and transport SMEs to discover and connect with truckers to help with their transportation needs. The start-up has been quietly disrupting the antiquated logistics approach in India and helping truck suppliers make a name for themselves. On some major routes across India, Vahak is helping truck drivers earn more than twice what they usually earn, by increasing truck utilization. Karan Shaha, CEO, and Co-Founder at Vahak commented: “Tech adoption is increasing rapidly in the Indian logistics industry and digitally-driven logistics services are the need of the hour in the current post-pandemic India. Through our platform, we are enabling truck drivers to operate for 25-26 days a month, as compared to the meagre 12-15 days they would operate otherwise. We are now all set to scale our technology and operations to capture 10% of the Indian logistics market and go from 1.5 mn users to 10 mn users in the next one year. We plan on expanding rapidly, enabling millions of Indian transporters and businesses with the power of technology. We have already integrated our platform with escrow payments and plan on bringing in services like insurance, GPS, spare part purchase, etc. very soon.” On leading the investment round Sameer Brij Verma, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners, said, “Despite posting good growth, the Indian logistics market continues to face certain challenges due to the lack of technology integration. Platforms like Vahak are now bringing about the digital transformation of this sector by providing tech-driven features and services to aid millions of truck drivers and shippers in the country. As India aims to cross the $5 trillion economy mark, and build common wealth for all citizens, it is imperative that such tech-driven initiatives receive adequate support from all quarters. We appreciate the tremendous work Vahak is doing and are glad to support them in their journey towards enabling digital, sustainable and cutting-edge transport operations in India.” Over the course of its journey, Vahak has successfully ushered in an unprecedented revolution in the Indian logistics sector. Transport operations in India are dominated by unorganized players that contribute to 86% of the entire market! This ultimately leads to high costs, lost opportunities, a number of inefficiencies, and a lack of transparency. This is why Vahak has focused on creating a supply-first platform that empowers transporters with the technology to find loads on demand, make their own digital brand and expand their business across boundaries. Supporting their vision to improve the truck supplier ecosystem, Vahak has collaborated with MediBuddy to provide over 6 lakh truck drivers with free online doctor consultations. And very soon, it is set to bring in a wide range of VAS (value-added services), like fuel cards, insurance, GPS, truck tyres & spare parts, and more. Alongside tertiary services, Vahak has also launched Vahak Payments, an in-app feature to make transactions faster and safer. Truck drivers can request for advance/balance payments and consignors can pay with a single click. Vahak Payments are safe and fast and help mitigate major payment issues. Through faster & smarter supply-demand matchmaking, Vahak has helped save over 27 million litres of diesel in just one year, effectively reducing the carbon footprint by 70,000 metric tonnes. With climate change becoming increasingly worrisome by the day, steps like these go a long way in promising a greener tomorrow. About Vahak Vahak is India’s first and largest open transport services marketplace, used by 2 mn+ users. Founded by IIT graduates Karan Shaha and Vikas Chandrawat, Vahak helps truck owners, transporters, consignors and transport agents find loads and lorries for their respective businesses. Users can also make their own online transport brand and build their own network to grow their business. Vahak is empowering thousands of single truck owners, transport SMEs and local businesses with the power of digital. Contact Details Vahak Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://www.vahak.in/

June 22, 2022 10:57 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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SPARK Microsystems Releases SDK for Simple, Fast UWB Application Development

SPARK Microsystems

SPARK Microsystems, a Canadian fabless semiconductor company specializing in next-generation ultra-wideband (UWB), today announced the availability of its Software Development Kit 1.0 (SDK) for its SR1000 Series UWB transceivers. SPARK’s SDK can be used to simplify and accelerate development of high data rate, low power, and low latency UWB communication links for various applications. This software development kit uses SPARK’s Evaluation Kit (EVK) board as a reference hardware platform for code development and debugging. The SPARK Software Development Kit includes a comprehensive set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to facilitate development of various software applications without requiring direct access and control of the UWB transceiver. Combined with various example application code included in the SDK, this enables more efficient development of new products using SPARK UWB communication technology. “Release of the SPARK SDK 1.0 represents another milestone in our effort to proliferate our products using the unique SPARK UWB technology and support fast time to market for a wide range of customer applications.” said Frederic Nabki, Co-Founder and CTO, SPARK Microsystems. The SPARK SDK is a collection of software development tools and examples in one comprehensive package for use by developers to create UWB-based products and applications. The SDK provides multiple simple and concise application examples to educate developers on using SPARK core libraries, such as the SPARK Wireless Core and the SPARK Audio Core, which bring additional functionality and accelerate development time. It also provides a board support package (BSP) that will enable developers to try the application examples on an already supported and tested hardware platform. In addition, SPARK’s SDK offers an effortless way for developers to experiment with SPARK technology by customizing existing applications and then testing and debugging code on SPARK’s EVK boards. In booth 326 at Sensors Converge 2022, SPARK Microsystems will highlight the many advantages that UWB delivers for sensor applications compared to legacy short-range wireless platforms like Bluetooth. The company will demonstrate its new Wireless Sensor Kits (WSKs) based on the SDK. This extreme low power and compact reference module – just 40mm X 40mm – houses multiple sensors (optical, gyroscope, motion sensors/accelerometers) and leverages a SPARK SR1020 UWB transceiver for point-to-point sensor applications. This kit comes with software examples and necessary information for customers to design sensor modules specific to their own applications. About SPARK Microsystems SPARK Microsystems is a fabless semiconductor company that is leading the way towards ultra-low power wireless communications for consumer and IoT-connected devices. With its patented technologies, SPARK Microsystems is bringing to market a high-performance wireless transceiver that allows for orders of magnitude improved power consumption, latency and more accurate ranging and positioning, while providing higher data rates than competing technologies. For more information, please visit www.sparkmicro.com. Contact Details Rainier Communications Jenna Beaucage +1 508-340-6851 jbeaucage@rainierco.com Company Website https://www.sparkmicro.com

June 22, 2022 10:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study Quantifies Arria NLG Value

Arria NLG

Arria NLG, the worldwide leader in natural language technologies, appeared in a Forrester Research report that found that organizations invested in Arria to reduce manual work, enable machine-level scaling, and facilitate the distribution of more efficient, accurate, and connected insights across their organizations. The Total Economic Impact™ of Arria Natural Language Generation, authored by Forrester, details how Arria improved customer acquisition and retention, enabled a higher volume of business, or improved decision-making for each organization it interviewed. Financial analysis found that the composite organization experiences benefits of $4.53 million over three years versus costs of $1.47 million, resulting in a net present value (NPV) of $3.06 million and an ROI of 209 percent. “Arria’s NLG technology provides machine-speed analysis of large volumes of structured data and translates that data into natural language data insights,” said Sharon Daniels, CEO, Arria NLG. “The findings presented in Forrester’s research validate and quantify the value of natural language generation as well as Arria’s ability to foster data literacy, democratize analytics, and provide enterprises in all markets with the competitive advantage of access to insights.” Arria identifies key insights and provides configurable, out-of-the-box narratives to communicate them to decisionmakers in real time, providing both automation and data literacy benefits for customers. By generating instantaneous data stories to augment dashboard views and visualizations at the click of a button, Arria eliminates a large portion of manual work previously undertaken by Business intelligence (BI) analysts. According to Forrester, Arria NLG reduced the manual report generation labor by 80 percent, saving up to 60 percent in time spent by BI analysts and their supported decision-makers. Furthermore, intelligent automation removes any risk of human error in reporting and written analyses, increasing annual revenue up to 2 percent. NLG produces data-driven narratives that ensure reporting accuracy and improve operational efficiencies. “Data literacy is paramount and by streamlining the accuracy and democratization of data insights across organizations, Arria helps reduce the cost of creating strategic intelligence that everyone can access and action,” added Daniels. For fund managers and financial advisors, Forrester estimates that Arria NLG reduces the manual resources required for written commentary by as much as 85 percent. An executive director at a financial services company shared: “We analyze dozens of data points for thousands of companies. To be able to write a narrative summary every month for each one, we’d have to hire an army. We wouldn’t be able to scale that.” Forrester noted that organizations also attributed new business to Arria’s ability to create a new type of product or service for external customers. Others were able to deliver their reporting and insights services faster or at a higher volume, improving the quality of service and creating additional revenue. With global organizations managing ever-growing data streams, sifting through information, identifying key insights, and sharing them are critical but time-consuming and costly processes. Arria NLG is the innovative and transformative technology that businesses need to streamline processes, increase data literacy, and improve decision-making. Arria’s technology will not only add value for employees, but also enhance processes, delight customers, and strengthen the bottom line. Access the full Forrester Total Economic Impact study to learn more. About Arria NLG Arria NLG is the recognized global leader in the field of Natural Language Generation (NLG), a form of artificial intelligence specializing in extracting insights from complex data sources and communicating that information in natural language. Arria owns, develops, and licenses its core, patented NLG technologies via the Arria NLG Platform. Connect with Arria on LinkedIn, follow us on Twitter, or visit us at www.arria.com. Contact Details Mostafa Razzak JMRConnect: Shaping Influence® PR (for Arria) +1 202-904-2048 m.razaak@jmrconnect.net

June 22, 2022 09:20 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Octane11 Raises $4.5 Million to Accelerate Growth of the Connected Data Platform for B2B

Octane11

Octane11, the B2B data platform company bringing simplicity to enterprise analytics, announced today the closing of a $4.5 million seed financing led by Javelin Venture Partners, with participation from BDMI, Honeystone Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, Base Ventures, Circadian Ventures, and AperiamVentures. A number of industry insiders, including Erik Matlick, CEO of Bombora, Zain Jaffer, Founder of Vungle and Partner at Blue Field Capital, Eric Roza, former CEO of Datalogix and leader of Oracle’s Data Cloud division, and Amar Goel, Founder and Chairman of PubMatic, also participated in the round. The new funding will accelerate Octane11’s mission to help B2B sales, marketing, and product executives spend less time wrangling data and more time delivering results. Business-to-Business (“B2B”) enterprises have adopted more software tools than ever across all departments - using an average of 89 applications per company according to Okta’s Businesses at Work Report 2022. This diversity of applications has delivered great new functionality, but has also caused terrible confusion across tools and teams, leading to an explosion of costs for data infrastructure and the personnel required to synthesize it. The Octane11 platform solves this challenge by mapping fragmented data across a myriad of tools and teams to its proprietary, B2B-specific data model. The Octane11 solution not only reduces the cost of managing siloed data by as much as 80%, but also unlocks a range of industry insights, granular benchmarks, and AI-driven recommendations. Launched in late 2020, the Octane11 platform has already been used by its B2B clients to analyze over $500 million in revenue opportunities across 400,000 prospect accounts. “Synthesizing enterprise data is a massive, unsolved challenge that is becoming increasingly urgent,” said Octane11 Founder and CEO Dan Rosenberg. “Previously, as Chief Strategy Officer of a unicorn B2B software company operating across 16 cities, I felt this pain personally and pulled together a team of B2B data, operations, and SaaS experts to solve it.” According to Market Data Forecast, the market for data engineering services - the people costs related to synthesizing enterprise data - is over $40 billion, twice the size of the data warehousing market, and is expected to grow at over 18% per year through 2028. Meanwhile, the cost of hiring data specialists like Data Analysts, Data Engineers and Data Scientists, has exploded in recent years, making Octane11 an ideal solution for driving cost efficiency and business impact quickly. “We had a complex martech and salestech stack with over a dozen legacy tools that required tons of manual work to analyze - and yet we wanted to keep adding, testing and learning,” said Pete Davies, SVP Revenue Strategy at Cardlytics, an Octane11 client. “Octane11 gave us holistic visibility across all our tools in an easy-to-digest format that we could share across the entire team and compare to industry norms.” “The challenge of harnessing fragmented B2B data at scale is already massive and only getting worse with new channels emerging daily,” said Javelin Partner Noah Doyle, who will be joining Octane11’s Board of Directors. “Octane11 is building a unique network-style solution that complements other industry tools and can scale rapidly.” To learn more about how Octane11 can help you wrangle your B2B data and drive more actionable insights and collaboration, visit www.octane11.com and follow us on LinkedIn. To review open positions at Octane11, please visit www.octane11.com\careers Octane11 was represented by Robert Odell of Odell Girton Siegel LLC. About Octane11 Octane11 is a B2B-focused data analytics and collaboration platform that connects paid, owned, and earned marketing, sales, and product usage data to drive real business results. We help B2B enterprises with $100M+ in revenue to integrate, enrich, and analyze data across teams, and compare performance to industry benchmarks. Octane11 is backed by Javelin Venture Partners, BDMI, Honeystone Ventures, Circadian Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, Base Ventures, and AperiamVentures. Launched in late 2020, Octane11 is already helping some of the largest B2B enterprises break down data silos and turn every digital interaction into an actionable insight. To learn more, visit www.octane11.com and follow us on LinkedIn. About Javelin Venture Partners Javelin Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm, founded by former entrepreneurs who have first-hand experience developing companies from concept to thriving enterprises. Javelin invests in scalable, high-growth technology companies with large addressable markets and strong competitive advantages. The firm is an active investor with a long-term outlook, and is helping the next generation of founders build world-changing companies. Javelin is located in San Francisco, CA, but invests in companies throughout the world. For more information visit: www.javelinvp.com. Contact Details Press Contact +1 646-397-1631 press@octane11.com Company Website http://www.octane11.com

June 22, 2022 09:11 AM Eastern Daylight Time

XPOINT ANNOUNCES MAJOR MILESTONE AS XPOINT VERIFY GOES LIVE IN CANADA

Xpoint Technology

Xpoint, the leading geolocation technology company specializing in sports betting, iGaming and gambling in North America, has announced confirmation of a major milestone in the establishment and growth of the business. Xpoint Verify, Xpoint’s real-money gaming geolocation product developed specifically for sportsbook, iGaming and gambling operators, is now live, in-market for the first time in Canada with Xpoint partner SkillOnNet, the online casino operator which launched in Ontario on June 6, 2022. The news that Xpoint Verify is now live comes less than one year since Xpoint was formally unveiled in Las Vegas at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) 2021. SkillOnNet, operator of some of the world’s most popular online casinos, launched in Ontario with its brands PlayOJO, SlotsMagic and SpinGenie in early June, 2021. Ontario legalized online gaming on April 4, 2022, opening a major new iGaming market that is expected to reach $1billion in revenue over the next two years. “For everyone involved with Xpoint, this is a very significant announcement,” commented Marvin Sanderson, Xpoint CEO and Co-Founder. “We founded Xpoint in 2019, then formally launched the business just eight months ago at G2E, and now we have our first product live in-market, with an outstanding partner in SkillOnNet. Our investors, partners and our team have made this possible, and I want to thank them all for their support and their hard work. Thousands of hours of work by our world-class team have gone into making this moment possible, and we are honored to be supported by a number of investors and partners who share our vision for transforming the geolocation industry – thank you to them for playing such an important role in helping us reach this milestone. “It’s worth noting that this is just the start, the first chapter in our story. In a matter of weeks we’ll also be live in the USA, and then the rollout of both Xpoint Verify, and Xpoint Lite, our geolocation product designed and built for Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) operators, will continue at pace. We have a very exciting future ahead, and I’m delighted we’ve already reached such an important chapter in our history with SkillOnNet.” “We’re proud to work with Xpoint as our official geolocation technology partner,” said Maor Nutkevitch, Senior Vice President Corporate Development at SkillOnNet. “We were attracted to Xpoint’s technology that helps our consumers engage with our platforms safely and securely, and the fact that our working relationship is rooted in a true partnership.” Xpoint’s innovative geolocation solutions provide technology that enables sportsbooks, iGaming and Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) operators to meet their regulatory obligations, helping engage with their customers safely and securely. Xpoint Verify is the real money gaming operator’s geolocation product of choice, while Xpoint Lite is specifically designed for DFS operators. Xpoint’s innovation is not just in product design and delivery, it is also inherent in the company’s ability to work with its partners to turn location-based data into business assets, transforming a utility into a business benefit. To find out more, go to www.xpoint.tech. #### ABOUT XPOINT Xpoint provides essential geolocation security solutions and intelligent location-based marketing insights to the global sports betting and iGaming industries. Xpoint’s innovative Verify and Lite platforms ensures partners meet their regulatory geo-compliance obligations, and deliver enhanced value through the generation of location-based data that can drive marketing programs. Recently nominated for two 2022 SBC North America Awards, Xpoint was founded in 2019 and officially unveiled in Las Vegas in 2021, and is led by the company's CEO and Co-Founder Marvin Sanderson, a global sports betting and iGaming industry leader. With North American offices in Toronto, Canada and Miami, Florida, Xpoint is changing the global geolocation market, bringing innovation to an industry that has, to date, viewed geo-compliance as a utility, not a new business opportunity. For more information, visit xpoint.tech and follow LinkedIn and Twitter for regular updates. Contact Details Xpoint Tom Webb +1 512-952-9369 tom.webb@xpoint.tech Company Website https://xpoint.tech/

June 22, 2022 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Digital Cities Index 2022: European Cities outperformed with open data projects and tightly defined sustainability schemes

Economist Impact

Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Beijing, London & Seoul are the top 5 digital cities in the index European cities ran highly successful traffic management systems, while Beijing applied digital technologies to tackle air pollution and optimise utilities and sharing economy Involving citizens in design of smart city schemes underpins meaningful inclusion – a key aspect of successful smart city projects Smart city schemes delivered major public health benefits in areas like telemedicine, covid management and remote monitoring of patients TOKYO, JAPAN - Media OutReach - 22 June 2022 - The Digital Cities Index 2022, produced by Economist Impact and supported by NEC, is an inaugural ranking of 30 global cities across four thematic pillars: connectivity, services, culture and sustainability. Of the top 10 cities of the index, four are in Europe (Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London and Paris), four are in Asia Pacific (Beijing, Seoul, Sydney, Singapore) and two are in the US (New York and Washington DC). Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Beijing, London & Seoul performed the best, with successful open data projects and major strides in smart technology-powered sustainability projects like utility management. Cities with very defined goals realised the greatest benefits: European cities ran highly impactful traffic management systems, whereas Beijing made progress using applied digital technologies - tackling air pollution, optimising its utilities and promoting its sharing economy. The Atlantic nation cities led in open data innovation with a boom in travel and mobility apps. Sustainability was the biggest impact area highlighted by the White Paper, with leading smart cities realising major gains in air quality through smart utility management. Sustainability brought the highest overall scores, with Copenhagen, Seoul and Toronto scoring highest for their use of digital technology to support urban sustainability. Copenhagen and Singapore were the most connected cities, followed by Zurich, Beijing and Sydney. Singapore’s strategy for developing digital connectivity is built on the premise that AI, 5G and cyber security will drive the country’s growth and innovation post-covid. Smart cities are anticipated to drive economic growth: 5G alone will enable an estimated US$660 billion global mobility and transportation market by 2035. Unaffordable, unreliable or inaccessible internet services impact other city level goals. Half-a-million households reportedly lack a reliable internet connection in New York City, for instance, disadvantaging low-income children for remote learning. By contrast, Washington DC has offered low-cost or free services and devices to families unable to afford a broadband subscription and Paris has the most affordable mobile data of all the cities analysed. Ritu Bhandari, manager, policy and insights at Economist Impact, noted: “Smart cities will be safer, cleaner and more inclusive urban landscapes, where citizens enjoy better public health and services, more efficient transport and major economic improvements to be shared as public goods. The index highlights how outlier cities are leveraging technology to improve quality of life for millions of citizens around the world. While we see strong leadership from cities in Western Europe, the table is led by major cities from a wide geographical spread. The most significant improvements were delivered against tightly defined goals – a critical success factor for urban digital transformation.” Since the pandemic, digital technologies have enabled real progress in public health. In Asia, apps were central to managing covid-19, while telemedicine and real time remote monitoring of chronic patients has marked digitisation everywhere. In New York, for instance, a diabetes-prevention initiative for adults has reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes in high-risk individuals by 58%. Singapore, São Paulo and New Delhi ranked the highest for their delivery of digital municipal services. New Delhi ranks high in part because of the success of Aadhar, India’s ground-breaking national digital identity scheme. In Korea, Metaverse Seoul, announced in November 2021 by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, will provide citizens with access to government services via the metaverse. The report’s authors note that involving citizens in the design of smart city schemes underpins meaningful inclusion, a critical success factor for smart city projects, along with delivery against tightly defined goals. Download the full index results, report and infographic on: economistimpact.com/digitalcities Digital Cities Index 2022 results: About Digital Cities Index 2022 The Digital Cities Index (DCI) 2022 is an inaugural ranking of 30 global cities across four thematic pillars: connectivity, services, culture and sustainability. Combining quantitative and qualitative analysis, and including a survey of 3,000 residents spread across all cities in the DCI, the results show how cities are performing in terms of both quantitative metrics like internet speed and qualitative factors such as the presence of strategies, policies and plans for technologies like 5G and AI. About Economist Impact Economist Impact combines the rigour of a think-tank with the creativity of a media brand to engage a globally influential audience. We believe that evidence-based insights can open debate, broaden perspectives and catalyse progress. The services offered by Economist Impact previously existed within The Economist Group as separate entities, including EIU Thought Leadership, EIU Public Policy, Economist Events and SignalNoise. Our track record spans 75 years across 205 countries. Along with creative storytelling, events expertise, design-thinking solutions and market-leading media products, we produce framework design, benchmarking, economic and social impact analysis, forecasting and scenario modelling, making Economist Impact's offering unique in the marketplace. Visit www.economistimpact.com for more information. About NEC NEC Corporation has established itself as a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies while promoting the brand statement of “Orchestrating a brighter world.” NEC enables businesses and communities to adapt to rapid changes taking place in both society and the market as it provides for the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. For more information, visit NEC at https://www.nec.com Contact Details Head of marketing, content solutions, Economist Impact Alice Tong alicetong@economist.com

June 22, 2022 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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