Samsung Electronics’ Global Research & Development (R&D) Centers have presented their studies to the CVPR (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition) introducing new computer vision, deep learning and AI related technical researches.

CVPR is the world’s biggest conference on computer engineering and AI. At this year’s conference, held online from June 14 to 19, Samsung Research, an advanced R&D hub within Samsung Electronics’ SET Business and its advanced R&D centers gave presentations on a total of 11 thesis papers. Researchers from Samsung Moscow AI center and Samsung Toronto AI center were invited to oral presentations, an opportunity given to only 5% of the entire attendees.

At the oral presentation, Pavel Solovev of Samsung Moscow AI Center introduced ‘High Resolution Daytime Translation without Domain Labels’, which is a technology that changes a high resolution landscape photograph into scenes from various times of the day using data without domain label. Konstantin Sofiiuk also introduced ‘f-BRS: Rethinking Backpropagating Refinement for Interactive Segmentation’, which is a technology that allows a user to simply click an object in a photograph to precisely select and separate it.

‘High Resolution Daytime Translation without Domain Labels’

Joining from the Toronto AI Center, researcher Michael Brown and his team introduced the paper titled ‘Deep White-Balance Editing’, which was also selected for an oral presentation. This AI technology corrects white-balance mistakes made in a captured photograph much more accurately than existing photo editing programs. This technology also allows users to accurately adjust the photo’s white-balance color temperature.

Deep White-Balance Editing

Researchers from Samsung Research America also presented interesting findings at the conference. Eric Luo’s study titled ‘Wavelet Synthesis Net: An Efficient Architecture for Disparity Estimation to Synthesize DSLR Calibre Bokeh Effect on Smartphones’ focused on key enablers to narrow the gap between DSLR and smartphone camera in terms of bokeh, the narrow depth of field (DoF).

Yilin Shen from Samsung Research America’s AI Center introduced a study on out-of-distribution (OoD) benchmarks for deep neural networks research. Shen’s study titled ‘Learning out-of-Distribution Detection without Out-of-Distribution Data’ proposed the key machine learning algorithm of drastically improving the detection rate, one of major challenges in AI technology.

Additionally, the studies proposed by researchers from the Samsung Research’s Visual Technology team and Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore were also selected by CVPR.

The award recognizes individuals who have made significant technical contributions to the continuing innovations in mobile broadband technology and is presented by 3GPP, a global initiative formed to develop technical specifications for the latest mobile broadband standards such as LTE and 5G. An estimated 2,000 researchers are part of 3GPP working groups, and the Excellence Awards are given to up to four individuals each year.

Basavaraj Pattan was recognized for his contributions in the field of mission-critical communications technology and 5G service API platform. Mission-critical communication networks are systems built and designed to guarantee robust, fail-safe and secure communications for use by first responders in case of public emergencies.

Basavaraj Pattan, engineer at Samsung R&D Institute India and recipient of the 2018 3GPP Excellence Award

The impact of Basavaraj Pattan’s expertise is recognized as significant in developing the optimal technical specifications in system networks and devices used in public emergencies, enabling communications through voice calls, texts, videos as well as live broadcasts during events such as natural disasters. His contributions have had positive impacts on Samsung’s ability to deliver mission-critical communication devices to agencies in the U.S. and the U.K.

“It is an honor to receive this coveted award; it demonstrates the excellence of Samsung’s contributions to 3GPP standards,” said Basavaraj Pattan.

This is the fifth time a Samsung employee has received this prestigious award. Past awardees from Samsung include Gert-Jan van Lieshout (2013, SRUK), Himke van der Velde (2014, SRUK), Ricky Kaura (2015, SRUK) and Aris Papasakellariou (2017, SRA).

“Samsung employee receiving this recognition reflects our journey towards Advanced R&D, and our company’s commitment to broadband mission-critical services and a robust platform for 5G services,” said Dr. Aloknath De, CTO in SRI-B.

This photo was taken at the 3GPP Excellence Award ceremony following a SA (Service and System Aspects) 6 Working Group meeting in India. From left to right: Suresh Chitturi, Chairman of 3GPP SA 6 Working Group, Basavaraj Pattan (Awardee), David Chater-Lea (SA6 Vice-Chairman), and Alan Soloway (SA6 Vice-Chairman)

The survey, conducted across Bengaluru with over 1,600 respondents, was commissioned by Samsung Electronics to gauge the issues faced by young budding entrepreneurs in shaping their ideas.

When asked what they thought defines the character and nature of Bengaluru, respondents pointed out to the city’s startup culture, innovation and R&D, technology business as well as its art and culture and heritage buildings, highlighting the diversity of the city, especially its millennials who are looking for interesting experiences in the city.

While a third felt the city’s heritage buildings and architecture, which is a mix of colonial and art deco buildings spread across the city, defined its character, almost four in five of the millennials said they rarely ever notice heritage buildings in the city when travelling within the city.

A sizeable 77% of millennials and 63% of non-millennials say they would want to restore heritage buildings and see them being converted into public spaces for art, culture and other events around technology and startups to hone the dreams of its residents. Most respondents felt the city currently has a shortage of such spaces.

These millennials and non-millennials alike want heritage buildings across the city to be restored, development of more art and culture venues in the city and greater number of parks and outdoor spaces to be created for recreation, again highlighting the fact that people of the city crave public spaces and care for its culture and heritage. These aspects are something that the rapid growth of the city as the technology centre of India may have ignored over the years.

“Bengaluru is India’s undisputed tech hub. As the information technology business has grown over the years, it’s also acquired the moniker of India’s startup capital. No wonder 81% of Bangaloreans say they have at least one game changing idea in our survey. But we found that while technology might be centre stage, the city has a heart. The city loves its art, culture, which is why they want to save heritage buildings and turn them into beautiful venues for concerts, museums and public spaces for art and culture. They also seek more venues for networking creative and business ideas they have,” said Mr. Mohandeep Singh, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India.

Editor’s notes

Primary survey data is based on face-to-face interviews conducted with 1,628 respondents aged between 18 and 50 in Bangalore. Data was collected between August 21 and August 29, 2018.