HANOI, VIETNAM - Media OutReach - 16 September 2020 - Last weekend, in the framework of theonline event "Artificial Intelligence Day 2020 - Far-reaching to Take onthe Challenge", VinAI Research Institute (a member of Vingroup) announcedtwo AI technologies including VCam Kristal (AI photography technology forcameras under display) and VSound Alto (noise filtering technology). PioneeringAI technologies enable the realisation of ultimate infinity display experience,and make VinSmart one of the first companies in the world to own a smartphonewith a camera under display.

VCam Kristal is a pioneering AIphotography technology successfully developed by VinAI Research, allowinghigh-quality photography with cameras under display (CUD). By incorporating AIalgorithms and models in computer vision, computational photography, andspecial neural network architecture, VCam Kristal overcomes optical barriers ofcameras under display. The technology eliminates image blur, lack of colour,chroma noise and flare, colour fidelity, etc., to create sharp selfies with 4Kresolution.

VCam Kristal is the result ofcooperation between VinAI and VinSmart Research and Manufacturer Joint StockCompany. This consequently makes VinSmart one of the first companies in theworld to own a smartphone using a camera under display. VCam Kristal marks animportant breakthrough in AI camera technology on cell phones, opening upopportunities to commercialise high-quality cell phones with cameras under displaywhile realising an infinity display experience.

VSound Alto is a noise filteringtechnology based on deep learning in speech and sound processing. Workingsimilarly to human ears, VSound Alto can accurately capture and maintain voicequality while eliminating noise with outstanding efficiency. Compared totraditional noise filtering methods, this technology can filter out both commonnoise sounds and sudden noise sounds (such as sirens, the sounds while childrenare playing or from a keyboard), and at the same time save hardware energyconsumption.

When applied to cell phones, VSoundAlto technology will eliminate noise as users make phone calls. This technologyimproves voice quality and facilitates clearer and more seamless conversations.In the near future, Vsound Alto will be applied to eliminate noise pollutionfor remote conferencing systems, microphones, smart headsets, hearing aids andcar noise filtering systems, etc.

Dr. Bui Hai Hung (Director of VinAIResearch Institute - Vingroup) stated that: "It'sour pleasure to introduce VCam Kristal and VSound Alto to tech lovers ingeneral and AI tech lovers in particular. These technologies, along with theirspecific applications, are bringing AI closer to human life than ever before.VinAI will continue to make efforts in researching and developing breakthroughtechnologies to create products with high application value. At the same time,we will try to support enterprises to increase business productivity andefficiency with world-class technologies developed by Vietnameseintelligence."

Previously, VinAI Research introducedVFace technology for accurate face recognition when using masks. Notably, therecognition system developed by VinAI simply uses information from ordinarycameras, without needing additional sensors (such as infrared or depthsensors). This is an important factor to help save product costs, enabling easyintegration into existing camera systems. 

After 18 months of research anddevelopment, VinAI proved its leading role in promoting the development ofArtificial Intelligence in Viet Nam. Besides world-class research workspublished at the world's No. 1 conferences on Artificial Intelligence such asICML and NeurIPS, VinAI cooperates with leading research institutes andtechnology universities worldwide to create a network of exchange and researchto work on Artificial Intelligence solutions to solve the world's problems.

"Artificial Intelligence Day 2020 - Far-reaching to Take on the Challenge" is held online on September 12-13, 2020 with four main topics: AI Development in Vietnam: Vision and Challenges; AI in technical innovation in the fields of transportation, computer vision, and healthcare; AI Training in Vietnam and AI in natural language and Vietnamese language processing.

The event is expected to attract about 2,000 online participants in addition to being attended by world-famous speakers and panelists like Jeff Dean (Head of AI at Google); Nemanja Djuric (Machine Learning Tech Lead at Uber ATG); Professor Michael Brown - York University (Director of Samsung AI Center - Toronto), Anandan (CEO of Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence); Vu Ha (Technical Director of Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence); Professor Bhiksha Raj (Carnegie Mellon University), Professor Karin Verspoor (University of Melbourne), etc., and many famous Vietnamese AI experts working around the world. https://ai2020.vinai.io