Intel Works with Johnson Controls and Sensormatic for Digital Transformations in Retail.

We talked with Intel on their Movidius vision sensor systems for related applications. This appears to be a considerable advance and direction. 

“By leveraging Intel processors and accelerator cards based on Intel’s purpose-built Movidius™ vision processing units (VPUs), and OpenVINO™ toolkit to accelerate vision at the edge, Sensormatic Solutions enables retailers to make sense of granular data, creating growth opportunities and driving positive business outcomes.”  ... ' 

Sensormatic Solutions by Johnson Controls Collaborates With Intel to Digitally Transform Retail and Improve Shopper Experiences      

Johnson Controls’ innovation partnership with Intel now includes powering Sensormatic IQ

Sensormatic IQ, the new intelligent operation platform for retail, leverages Intel’s AI technology at the edge to deliver real-time insights across the enterprise

The collaboration enables customers to make informed business decisions that drive positive outcomes

NEUHAUSEN, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Johnson Controls, the global leader for smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, today announced that Sensormatic Solutions, its leading global retail solutions portfolio, continues to collaborate with Intel Corporation to deliver innovative solutions to retailers.

A key partner in powering Sensormatic IQ, the new intelligent operating platform for retail, Intel is helping Sensormatic Solutions deliver improved shopper experiences and retail outcomes for its customers. Through deep knowledge of the retail industry plus joint investments and developments in scalable, artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision-based solutions, Sensormatic Solutions and Intel are helping retailers gain real-time insights into inventory, shoppers, associates and the retail environment. ... 

“As the retail landscape evolves, our technology evolves with it,” said Bjoern Petersen, President, Sensormatic Solutions. “Intel’s AI solutions for the edge paired with our Sensormatic IQ platform is helping to power the digital transformation of the retail industry. Through this partnership and shared commitment to innovation and engineering, we are pleased to deliver solutions to address our retail customers’ biggest challenges and confidently move into the future. ... ' 

Neural Compute Stick in USB Form

Considering how this would be useful for training, delivery on some devices.  For taking an update to a IOT device.

Intel NCSM2450.DK1 Movidius Neural Compute Stick
4.8 out of 5 stars    12 customer reviews  | 7 answered questions   
Price: $76.05 
Neural Network Accelerator in USB Stick Form Factor
Real-time on-device inference; no cloud connectivity required
No additional heat-sink, no fan, no cables, no additional power supply
Prototype, tune, validate and deploy deep neural networks at the edge  ... " 

Neural Compute Stick

Would like to understand what 'plug and play' means here.  Acceleration likely.  Intriguing thing at this level.  wrote about Movidius previously. They were acquired by Intel in 2016, a natural idea.   More details at the link.

This little USB stick is designed to make AI plug-and-play
The Neural Compute Stick from Movidius makes it easy to add a machine vision processor to any device    by James Vincent     @jjvincent   in TheVerge.

Movidius Acquired by Intel

Autonomous devices will require vision as their most important sense.  In January, 2016 the company announced a partnership with Google.  Movidius has been active in the Google Project Tango project

Movidius + Intel = Vision for the Future of Autonomous Devices

Today, I’m excited to announce the planned acquisition of Movidius by Intel. Movidius’ mission is to give the power of sight to machines. As part of Intel, we’ll remain focused on this mission, but with the technology and resources to innovate faster and execute at scale. We will continue to operate with the same eagerness to invent and the same customer-focus attitude that we’re known for, and we will retain Movidius talent and the start-up mentality that we have demonstrated over the years.

Technology companies select Movidius’ Myriad 2 for its ability to execute concurrent, mission critical vision specific workloads in real time, at high performance and in an ultra-low power envelope. Deep Learning has emerged as one of the most transformative paradigms in computer vision for the next generation of embedded devices. Myriad 2’s architecture carefully balances compute performance, power, and cost, enabling Deep Neural Networks to be deployed in places they’ve never been before.  ... "