Intel is pouring more and more of its energy into its mainstay chip business, and that now means leaving some of its less essential work by the wayside. The company told CRN in a statement that it was "winding down" RealSense and transferring the talent and computer vision tech to efforts that "better support" its core chip businesses. The semiconductor giant will honor existing commitments, but the end is clearly on the horizon. Questions surfaced about the fate of RealSense after the team's leader, Sagi Ben Moshe, said he was leaving Intel two weeks ago. RealSense aimed to make computer vision more flexible and accessible. A company or researcher could buy cameras to aid everything from robot navigation through to facial recognition, and there was even a developer-focused phone.

Sony Corp. is considering spending around ¥100 billion ($900 million) to build a new semiconductor plant in southwestern Japan to meet the growing demand for image sensors used in smartphones, sources close to the matter said Tuesday. Sony, the world's largest maker of image sensors, is considering constructing the new plant adjacent to the site of its Isahaya plant in Nagasaki Prefecture, seeking to start operations sometime in the fiscal year ending March 2022, the sources said. The electronics giant holds about a 50 percent share of the global image sensor market. It also produces the sensors at plants in Kumamoto, Yamagata and Oita prefectures. The chip business is a key growth driver for Sony, as demand for image sensors, used in a wide range of products including self-driving vehicles, is expected to continue on an upward trend.

Catanzaro was the first person doing neural network work at Nvidia when he ….

Samsung Group said Wednesday that it planned to spend $22 billion to pursue new technology in areas like 5G mobile technology and artificial intelligence. The injection of money will be made over the coming three years and will be part of an overall $161 billion investment plan. That sum is 6% greater than the investment made by the South Korean conglomerate over the past three years, according to Reuters. The company said a substantial slice of the overall investment pie will be earmarked for South Korea itself, and that overall the investment will create some 40,000 new jobs. The plan, for instance, will boost Samsung's global roster of advanced AI researchers to 1,000.

Sony Corp. is betting on self-driving cars as way to boost its semiconductor business and ensure sustainable growth, given the volatility in the smartphone market. The electronics giant has developed a highly sensitive CMOS image sensor for automotive cameras to more precisely interpret signals from traffic lights and tail lamps that use light-emitting diodes. Automotive cameras that respond to LED signaling are facing growing demand because cameras based on conventional sensors are less accurate. Sony's new CMOS sensor is capable of capturing high-quality images in a wide dynamic range, even in situations with striking contrast, such as when cars enter or exit tunnels in daylight, the company says. Sony plans to begin mass production of the new CMOS sensor next March.

We also hear more on the next Call Of Duty title and Amazon's new fashion camera. Profits are up, and'Pokemon' is pretty much a license to print money. It's claimed an operating profit of $1.6 billion (178 billion yen) for the last quarter, which is almost a billion dollars more than the same quarter in 2016. It's the company's first financial results after its Switch console went on sale, and since March 3rd, it's sold 2.74 million units. The company believes sales will stay strong, forecasting 10 million more Switch consoles sold by this time next year.