Google Releases ‘Visual Inspection’ AI Tool That Can Spot Product Defects
Image via Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com
Google has launched the Visual Inspection AI, a new Google Cloud Platform (GCP) service that will help manufacturers and businesses detect faulty goods during the inspection process. This is the tech giant’s first GCP service dedicated to manufacturers, underscoring Google’s growing interest in the industry.
According to VentureBeat, defects cost manufacturers a hefty chunk of change each year. Quality-related costs account for as much as 15% to 20% of a brand’s sales revenue. The Visual Inspection AI aims to solve this problem, enabling businesses to conduct quality assurance checks and correct errors before the products are shipped to customers.
By identifying such defects early on in the manufacturing process, a brand will be able to improve its overall production output, increase yields and slash return costs. The Visual Inspection AI covers two high-level uses in manufacturing: cosmetic defection detection and assembly inspection.
Upon fine-tuning the software for each business’ specifics, the Visual Inspection AI will be able to spot potential defects in real-time, while leveraging Google’s cloud for processing. Among the first users of this new service are Renault, Foxconn, and Kyocera.
Google said its software can build models of products with up to 300 times fewer human-labeled images than other machine learning platforms, from as few as 10 images. The software’s accuracy will increase over time as it gets exposed to more products.
The Visual Inspection AI will be going up against Amazon’s Lookout for Vision, a similar cloud service that analyzes images using computer vision to spot defects in manufactured goods, though it’s notable that Amazon’s software requires a minimum of 30 baseline images as compared to Google’s 10.
“AI has proven to be particularly beneficial in helping to automate the visual quality control process for manufacturers – a particular pain point felt by the industry. We’ve been delighted by the strong interest in Visual Inspection AI, and we look forward to supporting more organizations as they continue to find innovative new ways to deploy AI at scale,” said Dominik Wee, Managing Director Manufacturing and Industrial at Google Cloud.
[via VentureBeat, cover image via Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com]
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