NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Nielsen (NYSE:
NLSN) and the University of Oxford
today announced a two-year collaboration to advance the use of
artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and classify consumer
packaged goods (CPG) products on shelves in retail stores.
Facilitated between Nielsen's Image Recognition group and the
Visual Geometry Group (VGG) at the University
of Oxford, this partnership brings together the world's
largest pool of product reference data with industry-leading
brainpower around AI technology to yield greater accuracy in
product identification and discovery.
Through this partnership, Nielsen is working directly with
University of Oxford Professors
Andrew Zisserman and Andrea Vedaldi
(Department of Engineering Science), world-renowned computer
scientists and pioneers in image recognition and AI research.
Zisserman, Vedaldi and their team of research scientists will work
together with Nielsen to more precisely and quickly identify and
classify in-store products based on product images captured through
Nielsen's eCollection solution. The Oxford researchers will focus on building and
enhancing the eCollection algorithms with increasingly advanced
deep learning capabilities, enabling a more automatic detection of
store products, promotions and prices without the need for manual
intervention.
In recent years, Nielsen has advanced its eCollection image
recognition capabilities with computer vision and machine learning
so that large amounts of data and thousands of products can be
processed. With an extensive track record of innovation, the VGG
Oxford researchers are tasked with further enhancing Nielsen's
eCollection capabilities, which is expected to improve accuracy
while reducing costs with Nielsen's product identification and
classification.
"Across industries, artificial intelligence has been extremely
successful in using the scale of big data to drive value—but the
next step is activating the very small details—like correctly and
automatically recognizing specific features on different products,
even when those products have similar visual characteristics," said
Arun Ramaswamy, CTO, Nielsen Global
Connect. "By partnering with one of the top AI-focused university
programs in the world, we're taking the next step in driving
business value from the most advanced implementation of emerging
technology. We are excited to continue on our future-focused path
with the University of Oxford."
"Nielsen is uniquely positioned, as no company in the world has
the in-store product data and image assets that Nielsen has," said
Andrea Vedaldi, Associate Professor of Engineering Science,
University of Oxford. "Our
collaboration with Nielsen provides us with the breadth of data to
leverage the power of deep learning and to drive new innovations in
the area, as we continue to work toward advancing neural networks
and image understanding."
For additional information on Nielsen's technology capabilities,
please click here.
ABOUT NIELSEN
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data
analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view
available of consumers and markets worldwide. Our approach marries
proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients
around the world understand what's happening now, what's happening
next, and how to best act on this knowledge. For more than 90 years
Nielsen has provided data and analytics based on scientific rigor
and innovation, continually developing new ways to answer the most
important questions facing the media, advertising, retail and
fast-moving consumer goods industries. An S&P 500 company,
Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than
90% of the world's population. For more information, visit
www.nielsen.com.
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF
OXFORD
Oxford University
has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World
University Rankings for the third year running, and at the heart of
this success is our ground-breaking research and innovation.
Oxford is world-famous for research
excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across
the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world
problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations.
The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research sparks
imaginative and inventive insights and solutions.
THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE
The Department of Engineering Science at Oxford has a substantial research portfolio,
including much that is directly supported by industry. In the
Department there are no barriers between the different branches of
engineering, and we are involved in a great deal of
multidisciplinary research collaborating with groups in other
departments from Archaeology to Zoology. The Department, founded in
1908, is the only unified department in the UK which offers
accredited courses in all the major branches of engineering; it
recently became the first UK institution to top the Times Higher
Education Engineering and Technology global subject rankings.
Professor Andrea Vedaldi:
https://www.eng.ox.ac.uk/people/andrea-vedaldi/
Professor Andrew Zisserman:
https://www.eng.ox.ac.uk/people/andrew-zisserman/
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nielsen-and-oxford-researchers-accelerate-ai-powered-image-recognition-of-products-in-stores-300923696.html
SOURCE Nielsen