Seeing Machines inks new IP deal for 'Occula' product

Driver monitoring technology company Seeing Machines announced a new intellectual property licence agreement for its ‘Occula’ neural processing unit (NPU) on Wednesday, with an unnamed US-based semiconductor company.

The AIM-traded firm said the licence - the second of its Occula NPU into the automotive semiconductor ecosystem - would target the development of a single semiconductor product with the option to expand into a larger family of devices.

It said the licence would facilitate another “fully hardware-accelerated and optimised” silicon platform, via the Occula NPU, embedding Seeing Machines' driver monitoring engine (e-DME) software in a cost, performance, and power-optimised way for road vehicle driver, occupant, and interior monitoring applications.

Licensing the Occula NPU was the “third pillar” of the company's "three-pillar embedded product strategy", the board said, which also includes its ‘FOVIO’ chip solution and e-DME software offer.

“This additional IP licence is an important milestone for Seeing Machines,” said chief executive officer Paul McGlone.

“It represents more validation that our three-pillar, systems focused, strategy is fitting and supportive of the automotive industry as it evolves rapidly to meet regulatory and customer demand with additional safety and functional outcomes, while minimising cost, package space, and power.”

McGlone described Occula as an “important performance enabler” for devices, with the company expecting it to continue to drive market share and revenue expansion for the FOVIO e-DME product offering.

“Seeing Machines will continue to innovate our algorithm pipeline in line with our Occula NPU to ensure we continue to offer the most sophisticated and efficient processing options to our customers.”

At 1013 BST, shares in Seeing Machines were down 0.46% at 7.96p.