High school student Selin Alara Ornek is looking ahead - using machine learning and the NVIDIA Jetson platform for edge AI and robotics to create robot guide dogs for the visually impaired.
The project, called IC4U, is one of seven robots Ornek has created to date, including a school aid robot, named BB4All, that can help prevent bullying with real-time notification and health-monitoring capabilities.
About the Maker A high school senior from Istanbul, Turkey, Ornek has always had a passion for the intersection of AI, social good and robotics. She's a self-taught robotics developer - in building IC4U, she used the Jetson Developer Kit as a sandbox to explore and experiment.
She is a member of AI4ALL, a nonprofit program with the mission to make AI more diverse and inclusive, and the New York Academy of Science. A global presence in the robotics scene, she's been recognized at the European Youth Awards and Women in Tech Global Awards events. She placed first in the 2021 Istanbul Bosphorus Robot Cup and third at the 2023 OpenCV AI Competition.
Her Inspiration Ornek's inspiration for creating IC4U came from a trip to France, where she saw a guide dog assisting its owner. Her late dog, Korsan, was also a key source of inspiration.
I started to think about if a visually impaired person lost their dog, not only would they lose their best friend, but their eyes, Ornek said.
The project was built to offer the visually impaired a companion not limited by aging and health.
Her Jetson Project Ornek initially used ultrasonic sensors located in IC4U's eyes to detect obstacles. But after attending the 2021 World Summit AI as a panelist, she decided to develop new AI applications for the robot dog that'd enable it to mimic a real one.
The ultrasonic sensors only offered object detection from directly in front of IC4U, and Ornek wanted to expand detection to the robot's entire surroundings.
The solution was using sound sensors located in the robot's ears. IC4U can turn toward a sound and process visual information gathered by an integrated ZED 2i Wide-Angle 3D AI camera, which captures a wider range of visual data and helps detect information such as the size and speed of an object.
To power the ZED 2i camera and for high-quality image processing, I used an NVIDIA Jetson Nano developer kit, Ornek said. I was so impressed with the ZED 2i camera's performance that I didn't want to limit its use to a simple object-recognition task.
She began to think of other ways that IC4U could assist a visually impaired person. IC4U's improved data processing from high-resolution sensors, powered by Jetson, enables it to detect city objects such as stop signs, traffic light colors and the denomination of paper money.
In addition, Ornek used the Jetson Nano to add a shopping feature to IC4U via web scraping from publicly available resources, aiming to one day expand it by partnering with online retail stores.
Back to School In the long run, Ornek hopes to deploy IC4U for use in smart cities and spaces - continuing her exploration of AI applications with next-generation platforms like Jetson Orin.
This fall, she'll begin studying computer science at the University of British Columbia on a full scholarship, as a recipient of the Karen McKellin International Leader of Tomorrow Award. She strives to encourage other youth, especially girls, that technology is fun.
Students and educators with a valid accredited university or education-related email address can sign up to purchase the Jetson Orin Nano or Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit at a discounted rate. U.S.-based students and educators can visit Sparkfun to sign up for their discount - residents of other countries should check their eligibility (login required).
Learn more about the NVIDIA Jetson platform and NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute Jetson AI courses and certifications.
More from Nvidia
08/10/2024
A recently released joint research paper by NVIDIA, Moderna and Yale reviews how techniques from quantum machine learning (QML) may enhance drug discovery metho...
08/10/2024
Serving as a bridge for academia, industry and public-sector groups to partner on artificial intelligence innovation, NVIDIA is launching its inaugural AI Tech ...
08/10/2024
TSMC, the world leader in semiconductor manufacturing, is moving to production with NVIDIA's computational lithography platform, called cuLitho, to accelera...
08/10/2024
This summer, scientists supercharged their tools in the hunt for signs of life b...
08/10/2024
Artificial intelligence is transforming cybersecurity with new generative AI tools and capabilities that were once the stuff of science fiction. And like many o...
08/10/2024
The U.S. healthcare system is adopting digital health agents to harness AI across the board, from research laboratories to clinical settings.
The latest AI-acc...
07/10/2024
NVIDIA and Foxconn are building Taiwan's largest supercomputer, marking a milestone in the island's AI advancement.
The project, Hon Hai Kaohsiung Supe...
03/10/2024
The air is crisp, the pumpkins are waiting to be carved, and GFN Thursday is ready to deliver some gaming thrills.
GeForce NOW is unleashing a monster mash of ...
03/10/2024
AI isn't just about building smarter machines. It's about building a greener world.
From optimizing energy use to reducing emissions, AI and accelerate...
02/10/2024
Editor's note: This post is part of the AI Decoded series, which demystifies...
01/10/2024
Washington, D.C., is where possibility has always met policy, and AI presents un...
27/09/2024
NIO's smart EV brand, ONVO, has unveiled the L60 flagship mid-size family SUV, built on the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip.
Earlier this year, the auto...
26/09/2024
Whether looking for a time-traveling adventure, strategic roleplay or epic action, anyone can find something to play on GeForce NOW, with over 2,000 games in th...
25/09/2024
Editor's note: This post is part of the AI Decoded series, which demystifies AI by making the technology more accessible, and showcases new hardware, softwa...
23/09/2024
The Wellcome Sanger Institute, a key contributor to the international Human Geno...
23/09/2024
NVIDIA is joining the U.S. government's launch of the Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI (PGIAI), providing Deep Learning Institute training, GPU cred...
23/09/2024
Hitachi Rail, a global transportation company powering railway systems in over 5...
20/09/2024
A committee of experts from top U.S. medical centers and research institutes is harnessing NVIDIA-powered federated learning to evaluate the impact of federated...
19/09/2024
In a surprise appearance at T-Mobile's Capital Markets Day, NVIDIA founder a...
19/09/2024
All the electricity that powers NVIDIA's global operations will come from renewable sources by the end of January.
It's the right fuel for the company&...
19/09/2024
GeForce NOW makes gamers' fantasies a reality by bringing top titles to the cloud. This week, the award-winning FINAL FANTASY XVI is available for members t...
18/09/2024
Telecommunications providers are transforming beyond voice and data services wit...
18/09/2024
Companies in the US spend $15bn annually on talent acquisition. The most important metric in recruitment advertising is the conversion from the paid click on th...
17/09/2024
A new AI innovation hub for developers across Tunisia launched today in Novation City, a technology park that's designed to cultivate a vibrant, innovation ...
17/09/2024
At TwitchCon - a global convention for the Twitch livestreaming platform-livestreamers and content creators this week can experience the latest technologies for...
12/09/2024
Rise and shine - Capcom's latest action-adventure game, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, heads to the cloud at launch next week.
It's part of nine new titl...
11/09/2024
AI is transforming the broadcast industry by enhancing the way content is created, distributed and consumed - but integrating the technology can be challenging....
11/09/2024
Enterprises are looking for increasingly powerful compute to support their AI workloads and accelerate data processing. The efficiency gained can translate to b...
11/09/2024
To accelerate autonomous vehicle development and deployment timelines, Nuro announced today it will license its Nuro Driver autonomous driving system directly t...
09/09/2024
Companies in broadcast, sports and streaming are transitioning to software-defined infrastructure to benefit from flexible deployment and to more easily adopt t...
06/09/2024
Customer service departments across industries are facing increased call volumes, high customer service agent turnover, talent shortages and shifting customer e...
05/09/2024
Fall will be here soon, so leaf it to GeForce NOW to bring the games, with 19 joining the cloud in September.
Get started with the seven games available to str...
05/09/2024
The business transformations that generative AI brings come with risks that AI itself can help secure in a kind of flywheel of progress.
Companies who were qui...
04/09/2024
Volvo Cars' new, fully electric EX90 is making its way from the automaker's assembly line in Charleston, South Carolina, to dealerships around the U.S.
...
04/09/2024
Editor's note: This post is part of the AI Decoded series, which demystifies AI by making the technology more accessible, and showcases new hardware, softwa...
04/09/2024
Edward Mehr works where AI meets the anvil. The company he cofounded, Machina L...
04/09/2024
It all started at Berlin's Merantix venture studio in 2022, when Silviu Homo...
29/08/2024
Well before OpenAI upended the technology industry with its release of ChatGPT i...
29/08/2024
It's time to mana-fest the spirit of adventure with Square Enix's highly anticipated action role-playing game, Visions of Mana, launching today in the c...
28/08/2024
As enterprises race to adopt generative AI and bring new services to market, the demands on data center infrastructure have never been greater. Training large l...
28/08/2024
Editor's note: This post is part of the AI Decoded series, which demystifies AI by making the technology more accessible, and showcases new hardware, softwa...
27/08/2024
The initial wave of generative AI was driven by its use in internet services tha...
27/08/2024
Aiming at making the process faster and smarter, NVIDIA on Wednesday released th...
26/08/2024
Nations around the world are pursuing sovereign AI to produce artificial intelligence using their own computing infrastructure, data, workforce and business net...
23/08/2024
A deep technology conference for processor and system architects from industry a...
22/08/2024
Straight out of Gamescom, NVIDIA introduced GeForce NOW support for Xbox automat...
21/08/2024
Snowflake is using AI to help enterprises transform data into insights and applications. In this episode of NVIDIA's AI Podcast, host Noah Kravitz and Baris...
21/08/2024
Developers of generative AI typically face a tradeoff between model size and acc...
21/08/2024
Editor's note: This post is part of the AI Decoded series, which demystifies...
High school student Selin Alara Ornek is looking ahead - using machine learning and the NVIDIA Jetson platform for edge AI and robotics to create robot guide dogs for the visually impaired.
