Seeing Machines inks IP deal with unnamed tech startup

Driver monitoring technology company Seeing Machines announced a strategic collaboration with a technology startup that specialises in image-sensor and optical systems design on Monday, to create an expected “step-change” in the performance of cabin-monitoring technology.

The AIM-traded firm said it has obtained a worldwide perpetual exclusive licence for both the automotive and aviation market sectors for AUD 5m (£2.85m), payable over three years, to access and customise the optical technology for cabin monitoring.

It said the technology licence fell under its "embedded systems approach", which adds value through the iterative ‘co-design’ of algorithms, processing and optics intellectual property, with each element optimised in the context of the other.

Applied consistently over time, Seeing Machines said the systems approach would yield a technology portfolio that could be used to build cabin-monitoring products with “distinct” reliability, accuracy, power consumption and cost advantages.

The addition of the optics intellectual property to the company's technology portfolio was expected to “significantly enhance” the reliability of core safety features of cabin-monitoring systems, as well as open the door to new forms of in-vehicle user experiences.

Ultimately, the licence was expected to improve the probability of winning new automotive awards, while simplifying the complexity and cost of delivering to “the most demanding” customer requirements.

In the future, when the technology is deployed into vehicles, sales royalties could be payable to the licensor.

Seeing Machines said the details of the optical technology could not be revealed due to multi-year development timeframes, as well as the need to maintain secrecy and protect the company's intellectual property.

“Seeing Machines vision, processing and optics experts are continually evaluating technologies that may influence or disrupt the cabin-monitoring market and have identified and carefully validated a technology that we believe will play a key role in the future of modern vehicles,” said chief executive officer Paul McGlone.

“We look forward to revealing more about this technology at the right time.

“For now, we have work to do to deeply integrate this technology into our stack and will be working closely with key customers preparing and fine-tuning our next-generation of cabin-monitoring systems.”

At 0850 BST, shares in Seeing Machines were up 0.71% at 7.05p.