VisionLabs, a resident of the Skolkovo Foundation, has opened an office in Dubai to promote its developments based on computer vision and machine learning in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market. This was announced by Dmitry Markov, CEO of VisionLabs.

“We have a certain approach to how we open our international offices. We never open a representative office if two conditions are not met - the presence of partners in this country and a certain amount of contracts. This is exactly the situation in Dubai: previously we have done several projects with UAE banks, now we are implementing a project with the Dubai Police. The following points that we have identified for ourselves in the framework of international expansion: offices in Singapore and the United States. The issue of entering Latin America and Japan is being considered, ”Markov said.

VisionLabs specializes in developing products and integrated solutions in the field of face and object recognition. Such solutions are used, for example, in the infrastructure of “smart” and “safe” cities, in the management of transport and passenger traffic, public safety, and so on. In addition, against the backdrop of the coronavirus infection pandemic, solutions for contactless payments using face biometrics, as well as remote verification and identification of the person, have become relevant, which frees them from going to banks or government agencies.

“In principle, all our products are universal, there are no restrictions on their use, because, as a rule, our algorithms are easily integrated into any applicable scenario - we pay great attention to this. Our software is often used as some kind of system core or, more simply, an engine, and we do not really like to do the work of writing user interfaces, this work is usually done by our partners. We immediately write all the documentation in English,” Markov explained, adding that the company had no difficulties with opening an office in Dubai due to the pandemic.

VisionLabs office, as explained in of the company was opened without attracting third-party investments. The new office is located in Dubai Internet City (DIC), a free economic zone that aims to create an ecosystem for global technology companies

Pandemic effect

According to Markov, according to the results of the first ten months, it is clear that almost all VisionLabs products are in demand, sales for them are growing, and the company intends to multiply its revenue compared to last year.

“It played a plus for us that people were forced to move during the pandemic. We have grown in demand for solutions for remote biometric authentication. For example, in the past, to become a client of a bank, you had to come to the office. And we have launched solutions that allow almost all operations to be performed remotely: you download the application, scan documents, take a picture, the system compares your photo with the photo on the documents, and if they match, then you become a client of the bank remotely,” Markov said.

According to him, most banking services today can be obtained remotely. In addition to the demand for biometric login devices, the demand for access control systems has also increased. For example, devices that allow a person to be admitted to an object using facial biometrics, devices for payment using facial biometrics. In addition, during the pandemic, VisionLabs launched the VisionLabs THERMO epidemiological control complex, which combined a biometric terminal and a thermal imager for measuring temperature in humans.

“This solution is in great demand. For example, many such terminals are bought by banks, construction companies, various transport infrastructure facilities. This solution is actively used at the checkpoints of various manufacturing enterprises, such as factories, factories and so on, that is, where there is a flow of people. Now everyone is fighting the epidemic in a simple way - you need to measure the temperature at the entrance to a person and make sure that he has the right to access the object. Thus, you can automatically protect your enterprise from a possible surge in morbidity and from unauthorized access,” the head of the company explained.

According to him, the situation with demand for VisionLabs developments is approximately the same on the internal , and in the foreign market. Now the company has projects in more than 35 countries around the world. For example, VisionLabs has created a facial recognition platform for the Singapore police, a control system for the builders of Olympic facilities in Japan, a biometric security system at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, etc.

New projects

According to Markov, 2020 brought another area of ​​work - cooperation with companies in the development of joint products. Two important projects were launched during the year. The first with Huawei (Huawei) - VisionLabs algorithms will be integrated into the ATLAS series of products, which are specifically designed to use deep machine learning models. The second project is being carried out for Sber: VisionLabs will implement facial biometrics and gesture recognition in a device that will soon appear on the market - the Sber Portal.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have transferred absolutely all employees to remote control. And we didn't even leave her. However, given that our growth plans were large, we continued to recruit the team - we have added about 50 people since January. Next year we will adhere to the strategy approved by the shareholders this year - to continue international development, opening new offices and increasing the number of partnerships both in Russia and abroad,” added the head of VisionLabs.

About company

VisionLabs is one of the world leaders in the creation of products based on computer vision and machine learning. The company's clients include financial and transport companies, retailers and international technology corporations. The main products of the company are the LUNA computer vision and video analytics platform and a line of devices based on proprietary technologies (Luna Ace, Luna Pos, Luna Thermo, etc.). According to the results of regular independent tests by the American National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), VisionLabs algorithms consistently occupy a leading position.