
It was the kind of message Connor McCluskey loves to find in his inbox.
As a member of the product innovation team at FirstEnergy Corp. - an electric utility serving 6 million customers from central Ohio to the New Jersey coast - his job is to find technologies that open new revenue streams or cut costs.
In the email, Chris Ricciuti, the founder of Noteworthy AI, explained his ideas for using edge computing to radically improve how utilities track their assets. For FirstEnergy, those assets include tens of millions of devices mounted on millions of poles across more than 269,000 miles of distribution lines.
Bucket Trucks Become Smart Cameras Ricciuti said his startup aimed to turn every truck in a utility's fleet into a smart camera that takes pictures of every pole it passes. What's more, Noteworthy AI's software would provide the location of the pole, identify the gear on it and help analyze its condition.
I saw right away that this could be a game changer, so I called him, said McCluskey.
In the U.S. alone, utilities own 185 million poles. They spend tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars a year trying to track the transformers, fuses and other devices on them, as well as the vegetation growing around them.
Utilities typically send out workers each year to manually inspect a fraction of their distribution lines. It's an inventory that can take a decade, yet the condition of each device is critical to delivering power safely.
5x More Images in 30 Days In a pilot test last summer, Noteworthy AI showed how edge computing gets better results.
In 30 days, two FirstEnergy trucks, outfitted with the startup's smart cameras, collected more than 5,000 high-res images of its poles. That expanded the utility's database more than fivefold.
People were astounded at what we could do in such a short time frame, said McClusky.
What's more, the pictures were of higher quality than those in the utility's database. That would help eliminate wasted trips when actual line conditions vary from what engineers expect to find.
The startup's camera system can be mounted on a utility truck in less than an hour. Use Cases Multiply News of the pilot program spread to other business units.
A team that inspects FirstEnergy's 880,000 streetlights and another responsible for tracking vegetation growth around its lines wanted to try the technology. Both saw the value of having more and better data.
So, an expanded pilot is in the works with more trucks over a larger area.
It's too early to estimate the numbers, but McCluskey felt right away we could find some significant cost savings with this technology - in a couple years I can imagine its use expanded to all our states, he said.
An Inside Look at Edge Computing In a unit the size of a small cake box that attaches to a truck with magnets or suction cups, Noteworthy AI packs two cameras and communications gear. It links to a smaller unit inside the cab that processes the images and AI on an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX.
We developed a pretty sophisticated workflow that runs at the edge on Jetson, Ricciuti said.
It uses seven AI models. One model looks for poles in images taken at 30 frames/second. When it finds one, it triggers a higher res camera to take bursts of 60-megabyte pictures.
Other models identify gear on the poles and determine which images to send to a database in the cloud.
Designing a fast, resilient camera was even more challenging than implementing AI, said Ricciuti. We're doing all this AI compute at the edge on Jetson, so we don't have to send all the images to the cloud - it's a huge cost savings, Ricciuti said.
With customer use cases growing, we'll graduate to products like Jetson AGX Orin in the future - NVIDIA has been awesome in computing at the edge, he added.
Software, Support Speeds Startup The startup uses NVIDIA TensorRT, code that keeps its AI models trim, so they run fast. It also employs the NVIDIA JetPack SDK with drivers and libraries for computer vision and deep learning as well as ROS, an operating system, now accelerated on Jetson.
In addition, Ricciuti ticks off three benefits from being part of NVIDIA Inception, a program designed to nurture cutting-edge startups.
When we have engineering questions, we get introduced to technical people who unblock us; we meet potential customers when we're ready to go to market; and we get computer credits for GPUs in the cloud to train our models, he said.
AI Spells Digital Transformation The GPUs, software and support help Ricciuti do the work he loves: finding ways AI can transform legacy practices at large, regulated companies.
We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg of what we can do as people are being forced to innovate in the face of problems like climate change, and we're getting a lot of interest from utilities with large distribution networks, he said.
Learn more about how NVIDIA is accelerating innovation in the energy industry.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
31/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
31/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
31/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
31/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/01/2026
Top L-R: The Friend's House is Here, Josephine, The Lake, Bedford Park, Who Killed Alex Odeh?
Second Row L-R: Take Me Home, American Pachuco: The Legend of...
30/01/2026
Spotify, Haziran ay sonunda kadar stanbul'da yeni bir ofis a aca n ve T rkiye pazar n y netmek zere yeni bir atama ger ekle tirdi ini duyurdu. Bu kaps...
30/01/2026
The Artemis II wet dress rehearsal will simulate the launch countdown, fully loading fuel and verifying systems ahead of the first SLS and Orion crewed flight....
30/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/01/2026
Grass Valley , the leading technology provider for live production solutions, and NETGEAR Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR), a global leader in network solutions, today anno...
30/01/2026
tvONE, a leading video processor, signal distribution technology and media server developer, announces the expansion of Amit Singh's role to Regional Sales ...
30/01/2026
With a career that spans four decades across television, film and post-production, Freelance Sound Designer and Post-production Sound Mixer Mike Aiton has built...
30/01/2026
DPA Microphones will feature its new, fully integrated wireless microphone ecosystem, designed to let audio professionals work faster, cleaner and with total co...
30/01/2026
As the Middle East continues to accelerate investment in next-generation media, broadcast, and immersive content technologies, Ventum Tech today announced a str...
30/01/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC), a Nikon company and global leader in robotic camera systems, today announced its participation at Integrated Systems Europe ...
30/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/01/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Hosts the National Opera Association's 2026 C...
30/01/2026
Student Spotlight: Sriram Narayanan The classical pianist shares his experience growing up with a language disability and finding his voice through music.
Ja...
30/01/2026
Heading into 2026, the pace of change across radio, TV, and digital media is reaching an inflection point. Audience behaviors continue to evolve, measurement mo...
30/01/2026
30 Jan 2026
VEON Partners with MindBridge to Enhance Financial Analytics, Audit...
30/01/2026
Introducing the NEW Techtel.tv! | FEB 5% OFF Offer
30 Jan Written By Suzanne Costello
Our Website & Online Store: Now Unified for a Seamless Experience.We...
30/01/2026
Friday 30 January 2026
Easels at the ready! All new judging line up for series ...
30/01/2026
Friday 30 January 2026
Britain can switch off terrestrial TV in the 2030s, with...
30/01/2026
Back to All News
The Danish Crime Series The Asset' Returns for a Second Season
Entertainment
30 January 2026
GlobalDenmark
Link copied to clipboard
...
30/01/2026
Two key themes came through strongly:
Inconsistent measurement remains a major barrier to comparing performance across Retail Media Networks
Independent cer...
29/01/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), in collaboration with a distribut...
29/01/2026
Michele Fracchiolla Succeeds Andrew Barr as President of EMEA region from April 1, 2026
London, January 29, 2026
Hitachi Europe Ltd. today announces the appoi...
29/01/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., January 29, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) reports fu...
29/01/2026
Bluey' Wins Second Consecutive Top Streaming Title of the Year with 45 Billi...
29/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/01/2026
Boston Conservatory Orchestra Presents East Coast Premiere of Peter and Leonardo...
29/01/2026
29 Jan 2026
Kyivstar Announces Pricing of Secondary Offering of Common Shares Held by VEON NEW YORK, New York, January 29, 2026 -- VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a ...
29/01/2026
Mercedes-Benz is marking 140 years of automotive innovation with a new S-Class b...
29/01/2026
X-Rite Pantone Appoints Cindy Cooperman as Vice President and General Manager of...
29/01/2026
New two-part true crime documentary, OUTBACK TERROR: THE FALCONIO MURDER, aims to shed new light on a case that continues to intrigue on both sides of the world...
29/01/2026
Back to All News
Love is Blind: Sweden Returns for a Third Season - Premiering ...
29/01/2026
Back to All News
Unmask Bridgerton' Season 4 With Our Complete Coverage Guide
Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek and Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton in Season ...
29/01/2026
Back to All News
Extraordinary Crime Mysteries, Mythical Worlds and High-Stakes...
29/01/2026
FOX Sports Unveils Historic FIFA World Cup 2026 Broadcast Schedule Monumental Slate Features 340 Hours of Live First-Run Programming Across FOX Sports Platfo...