Intelligent camera manufacturer Huddly has acquired fellow Norwegian AI company Epigram. The acquisition, which will result in tools, IP, and all AI engineers moving over to Huddly, aims to strengthen the AI capabilities of Huddly’s intelligent cameras.
Oslo-based Epigram specializes in computer vision and visual classification, developing cutting-edge tools and software to collect and analyze big data, with an acute focus on the application of AI to understand content. The company, founded in 2017, worked with multiple clients, including Huddly, Gjensidige, Tradono, and No Isolation to develop bespoke artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions.
Epigram has built a seven-person team of expert data scientists who will now join Huddly, increasing the headcount to 63. Prior to the acquisition, Epigram assisted with extending the AI models that run on Huddly’s smart cameras, training them so that they accurately detect and count people in the camera’s view in real time. Huddly IQ, the company’s first AI-powered product, includes features such as automatically framing the people in the room and performing advanced space analytics in rooms in which it is installed via the Huddly InSights API.
The acquisition of Epigram will enhance Huddly’s AI and ML capabilities, with the company already implementing plans to extend its knowledge of what the camera is able to pick up, and how it is able to understand and respond to its surroundings. Huddly has already built a robust and capable hardware platform, with the next step being the continuous training of the camera, enabling it to provide valuable features to the end user, such as capturing content and tracking of people’s movement and gestures.
“We are very happy to welcome our Epigram friends into the Huddly team,” said Jonas Rinde, Huddly CEO of Huddly. “I’m confident that their addition will enable us to not only provide our end users with valuable experiences, but also to evolve our intelligent camera into a mature computer vision and AI platform that will inspire users and integrators. AI is the future for Huddly and will be the foundation for everything we do going forward.”
“The Epigram team are world-class engineers in one of the most exciting fields of computer science and their expertise will be hugely valuable to Huddly over the coming months and years,” said Vegard Hammer, Huddly’s VP engineering. “We have great plans in place and are looking forward to quickly executing on these. We see that Epigram share our vision and have the same passion for visual computing and AI as we have. This is going to be truly awesome.”
Bendik Kvamstad, CEO of Epigram, is looking forward to joining the team, commenting: “We have followed Huddly for a long time and have always been very impressed by the expertise of their team, the breakthroughs they have made with their technology, and their vision for the future. We are thrilled to be part of what comes next in the Huddly story and we can’t wait to get started and hit the ground running.”
