Enhancing the development of next-generation Driver Status Monitor leveraging facial image recognition, and neural network technologies

KARIYA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DENSO Corporation, one of the worlds largest automotive technology, systems and components suppliers, and Xperi Corporation (NASDAQ: XPERI), a Silicon Valley-based technology company, today announced DENSO will start joint technology development of cabin sensing with FotoNation, an Xperi group company specializing in image recognition technologies. The partnership will help DENSO significantly improve the performance of its Driver Status Monitor, an active safety product currently used in commercial vehicles. Improvements of such products also will accelerate the development of next-generation products to be used in passenger vehicles, including a system to help drivers return to driving mode during Level 3 of autonomous drive.

"We are excited to partner with DENSO to innovate in such a dynamic field"
This collaboration will combine DENSOs accumulated experience in improving the robustness of cabin sensing innovations and FotoNations sophisticated facial image recognition and neural network technologies. By combining technologies of the two companies, DENSO will be able to achieve the worlds most sophisticated driver status detection, which will not be affected by differences between individual faces, or by sunglasses, masks, and other facial coverings, in the vehicle cabin where environmental light changes dramatically.

Since 2014, DENSO has provided a Driver Status Monitor for heavy trucks and large sightseeing buses. This advanced safety product uses a cabin camera to capture images of the driver and computer vision technology to detect the drivers face angle to determine the level of drowsiness. Using its proprietary algorithm to carefully analyze the drivers eye blinking, DENSOs driver status monitor can detect driver drowsiness and alert the driver when it judges the driver is distracted or falling asleep at the wheel, to help prevent traffic accidents.

With its superior technologies, FotoNation has led computer imaging solutions integration for more than 10 years. FotoNation has maintained market leadership in the mobile image recognition segment and its technologies are installed in various devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, drones and security cameras, with approximately 25 percent of worlds smartphones using its image recognition technology.

"Understanding the status of the driver and engaging them at the right time is an important component for enabling the future of autonomous driving," said Yukihiro Kato, senior executive director, Information & Safety Systems Business Group of DENSO. "I believe this collaboration with Xperi will help accelerate our innovative ADAS product development by bringing together the unique expertise of both our companies."

"We are excited to partner with DENSO to innovate in such a dynamic field," said Jon Kirchner, CEO of Xperi Corporation. "This partnership will play a significant role in paving the way to the ultimate goal of safer roadways through use of our imaging and facial analytics technologies and DENSOs vast experience in the space."

Using FotoNations facial image recognition and neural networks technologies, detection accuracy will be increased remarkably by detecting much more features instead of using the conventional detection method based on the relative positions of the eyes, nose, mouth, and other facial regions. Moreover, DENSO will develop new functions, such as those to detect the drivers gaze direction and facial expressions more accurately, to understand the state of mind of the driver in order to help create more comfortable vehicles.

DENSO will exhibit a prototype next-generation driver status monitor at the Tokyo Motor Show from October 27 to November 5, 2017.

About DENSO Corporation
DENSO Corp., headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan, is a leading global automotive supplier of advanced technology, systems and components in the areas of thermal, powertrain control, electronics and information and safety. Its customers include all the world's major carmakers. Worldwide, the company has more than 200 subsidiaries and affiliates in 38 countries and regions (including Japan) and employs more than 150,000 people. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, totaled US$40.4 billion. Last fiscal year, DENSO spent 9.0 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development. DENSO common stock is traded on the Tokyo and Nagoya stock exchanges. For more information, go to www.denso.com, or visit our media website at www.denso.com/global/en/news/media-center.

About Xperi Corporation
Xperi Corporation (Nasdaq: XPER) and its brands, DTS, FotoNation, HD Radio, Invensas and Tessera, are dedicated to creating innovative technology solutions that enable extraordinary experiences for people around the world. Xperis solutions are licensed by hundreds of leading global partners and have shipped in billions of products in areas including premium audio, broadcast, automotive, computational imaging, computer vision, mobile computing and communications, memory, data storage, and 3D semiconductor interconnect and packaging. For more information, please call 408-321-6000 or visit www.xperi.com.

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