PreAct Technologies, the industry pioneer in near-field software-definable flash LiDAR technology, announced today that it has reached a deal to acquire Gestoos, a company based in Barcelona and creator of a special software platform that enables users without specialised training to quickly produce AI algorithms that address their use cases. PreAct's leadership in offering the best sensor solutions for automotive, transportation, robotics, and other industrial applications is strengthened by the acquisition.

 

"By marrying a powerful AI algorithm development platform with our best-in-class flash Lidar, we have created a unique environment for our customers to quickly solve difficult use cases. For example, current in-cabin and cargo monitoring solutions were falling well short of delivering the kind of performance OEMs and fleets are looking for.  This is a real problem given the changing regulatory environment requiring accurate and stable cabin monitoring," said Paul Drysch, CEO of PreAct Technologies. "The Gestoos AI development platform comes pre-integrated with our flash Lidar solution and a development environment making AI training tractable by our customers' own engineers with minimal hand holding. We are excited to welcome the entire Gestoos team into the PreAct family, and even more excited to provide OEMs with real solutions to their most pressing sensor use case problems."

 

To make AI development approachable, the Gestoos AI development platform was created from the ground up. It can be compared to a CAD system for AI programmers. With a particularly vast library identifying gestures, human motion, and various combinations of humans and objects interacting, the AI platform may be used to train algorithms for any purpose. When used in conjunction with PreAct's flash Lidar, algorithm development activities that formerly required specialised teams of experts to spend weeks on them may now be completed in a matter of hours, changing industries like in-cabin monitoring and automatic door actuation.

 

Several uses of Gestoos technology are now being tested or employed, including:

 

Activity Monitoring

 

Automotive - Driver monitoring, occupancy monitoring, child or pet detection, behavior-based insurance risk rating

Public Spaces: Behavior monitoring, people counting, and escalator and elevator safety

Industrial - Productivity of employees, industrial safety

Awareness of Space

 

Automotive - Driver monitoring, occupancy monitoring, child or pet detection, behavior-based insurance risk rating

Public Spaces: Behavior monitoring, people counting, and escalator and elevator safety

Industrial - Productivity of employees, industrial safety

Awareness of Space

 

Healthcare – Hospital devices, surgical checklist, patient monitoring

Robotics – AGVs, AMRs, and consumer robots

Digital Display – Point of sale, virtual assistant, promotional and advertising

Consumer Electronics – TVs, laptops and smart devices

Automotive – Touch free HMI interfaces

 

"The acquisition of Gestoos is extremely strategic and should provide PreAct with a greater ability to intelligently process sensor data on the edge," said Jeffrey Hannah Chief Commercial Officer of automotive technology research and consulting firm SBD Automotive. Added Hannah, "this move also broadens PreAct's IP suite allowing them to become less reliant on system integrators to deliver new applications as well as differentiated software-defined services."

 

PreAct Technologies will keep growing its product line to give a variety of sectors the most economical, software-definable, high resolution LiDAR solutions possible. Along with the automotive sector, other sectors like healthcare, building maintenance, consumer electronics, robots, and trucks are beginning to recognise the potential of LiDAR to provide the necessary monitoring, measurement, and data.