Brief: Baidu acquires xPerception to boost its computer vision tech

Baidu’s Silicon Valley AI Lab is based in Sunnyvale, California. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.

• The Chinese search giant announced today its acquisition of xPerception, a US-based computer vision startup founded in 2016 by two ex-Magic Leap engineers, Bao Yingze and Chen Mingyu.
• The core xPerception team will join Baidu Research and move to Baidu’s US and Beijing offices following the acquisition. The acquisition amount is undisclosed and Baidu declined to comment beyond the press release.
• At Baidu, xPerception will work on its visual inertial simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology, which uses visual and inertial sensors, such as cameras, accelerators, and gyroscopes, for object detection and path planning. It’s applicable to AR, VR, and robotics, such as drones and autonomous driving.
• The acquisition comes at a difficult time for Baidu, whose chief scientist Andrew Ng resigned in March. This month, the Chinese tech firm was also embroiled in yet another medical scandal related to its search business. Baidu has been doubling down on its AI research efforts over the past few years. Earlier this year, it opened an AR lab and announced its acquisition of voice-assistant startup Raven Tech, as well as plans to help the Chinese government build a national AI lab.

Source: Baidu

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