The International Conference on Image Processing Visual Innovation Award was launched this year to recognize pioneers of transformative technologies and business models in areas related to visual processing, visual communications, computer vision, and visual-based applications.
Two Innovation Award winners were announced. From a field of seven finalists, Ren Ng, founder of Lytro's pocket-size light-field camera, and Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, were named the co-winners during a dinner this week.
Created by Lina Karam , an ASU electrical engineering professor serving as the IEEE ICIP 2016 General Chair, and Haohong Wang, TLC Research America General Manager serving as this year’s Innovation Program Chair, the Award is designed to showcase technological innovations that have had great impact on human experiences or are anticipated to do so in the near future.
Contenders were nominated online by researchers, developers, and product creators in the areas of image/video processing, image/video communications, computer vision, computational imaging, and visual technologies based applications. An award committee comprised of well-known industrial executives, visionary entrepreneurs, and scholars voted for seven finalists. The final stage took place during the IEEE ICIP 16, where conference attendees cast their votes .
The seven finalists selected by the Award Committee to enter the final competition were:
Achin Bhowmik — Intel RealSense
Steve Chen — YouTube
Bill Dally — nVidia CUDA
Reed Hastings — Netflix
Brendan Iribe — Oculus VR
Alex Kipman — Microsoft Kinnect
Ren Ng — Lytro
The IEEE ICIP 2016 Innovation Program Chairs arranged a half-day Innovation Program with prominent Keynote Speakers to share with attendees their insights on future innovations.