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OpenCV AI Kit

Created by OpenCV

Open Source Spatial AI From The Biggest Name in Computer Vision.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Update on the European Shipping Delays - Customs Backlogs Across Europe
over 3 years ago – Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 09:52:39 AM

Hi backers,

We heard back from BoxC today, from both their CEO and COO (big thanks to both of them for the timely response).  As a reminder, BoxC is managing the logistics for European deliveries (and many others).  

The message from the COO is the most informative as it provides what he expects to be the timeline:

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"Due to customs regulations changes in the aftermath of Brexit there are delays for EU shipments with the last mile carrier in combination with lockdowns affecting air and ground transport in EU. We expect the shipments can clear EU customs starting Monday [January 18th]."

---

So we now know the delays were because of customs backlogs!.  And with hope, these stuck European shipments will start to move again on Monday the 18th when EU customs starts clearing them.


The message from the BoxC CEO provides additional color as to the logistics solution, and how hard this is right now for shippers, workers, everyone in the chain right now:

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"I don't want to preempt any specific response, but over this peak period, delays have been experienced due to events such as:  

- record parcel volumes flooding delivery networks, at a time when labor has been a challenge due to COVID.  

- COVID: has impacted the amount of physical labor available.  

- customs delays: for the above reasons  

- data errors and delays in receipt of files: we can only update data that we have received (of course).  

- public holidays over the holiday season.  

I can assure you that we consistently review the supply chain (daily) and are active managers of all of our parcels.  Thanks for your business and your time to search and write to me."

---


So as we learn more, and discover what this is like for the workers on the ground moving these parcels, it is remind us how much thanks we owe these people.  So on behalf of the whole OpenCV team, I'd like to thank all of those who are working (often overtime) during this trying times to help get our shipments, and hundreds of millions of others, to their final destinations. As brutal as it is to wait on all of these, there are workers literally putting their lives on the line during the pandemic to try to keep these supply chains running. We are thankful for their efforts.


We will keep you all updated as we learn more.  And from the comments on other updates, _some_ European shipments have been cleared and have now been delivered, but they are definitely the exception at this point.  


And some reminders below:

Stretch Goal Models: OAK-D-WIFI, OAK-D-POE, and OAK-1-POE Ship in March

These 3 models are `stretch goal` models with shipping in March (we are still striving to hit this, and we'll do an update on the designs soon).

So one of the main confusions here is orders of say an OAK-1 and then an OAK-D, where the OAK-D was changed to an OAK-D-WIFI in BackerKit.  The backer then is alarmed to see only an OAK-1 arrive without and OAK-D.  Or worse, have a tripod arrive, with no OAK at all!

So in these cases it has always been the case (so far) that the other unit that did not arrive is one of the stretch-goal models that ships in March:

  • OAK-D-WIFI
  • OAK-D-POE
  • OAK-1-POE

So if you receive a package without everything you think it should have (e.g. missing an OAK-D), check your BackerKit for if you changed your OAK-D to one of these stretch-goal models.

Delivery Updates in General

  • 2,361 orders have now been delivered.
  • 2,409 are in transit (including the European shipments that are stuck)
  • 196 are "Out for Pick Pack"
  • 0 are pending approval
  • 5 are incomplete (and we are continuing to work with backers to fix addresses/etc.).

United States - USPS

  • So far 1,057 shipments have been successfully delivered in the US.
  • The most common question/concern about the US deliveries is getting a notification that your package was delivered, only to not see anything on your doorstep.
  • The confusion here is mainly because we didn't make clear that almost all (if not all) US shipments are delivered locally by USPS.  So your tracking number also works on USPS.com to get your status (and where it was delivered).
  • In these cases, it has so far always been the case that the package is in the USPS mailbox or USPS parcel locker (with a key to the parcel locker in the USPS mailbox).

So if your package is delivered and you don't see it, check your mailbox and/or your parcel locker.

Shipping Update - Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and France
over 3 years ago – Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 12:15:14 AM

Hi backers,


Some quick updates and notes address common problems we are seeing:

Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and France

  • For all four of these countries, there is some sort of holdup that floship hast not been able to explain to us yet.  We have asked floship multiple times and have yet to get information on what is going on here.
  • So for shipments going to these countries, we are seeing packages that shipped December 30th, still stuck in "SHIPMENT ACCEPTANCE" 
  • The only response we have gotten from floship is for us to stop asking about it (and to not email them with actual customers on the email).  We will keep asking floship about it, as it's crazy that these packages have been now waiting in this state for full 14 calendar days with no progress, and no update from floship (despite continual questions) about what is going on.

We will keep hounding floship on this to see if we can get any answer (other than "stop asking us") and report back what we find.  Sorry for the delay for you in one of these countries.  We are as frustrated as you are on these.  We will get to the bottom of it.

United States - USPS

  • The most common question/concern about the US deliveries is getting a notification that your package was delivered, only to not see anything on your doorstep. 
  • The confusion here is mainly because we didn't make clear that almost all (if not all) US shipments are delivered locally by USPS.  So your tracking number also works on USPS.com to get your status (and where it was delivered).
  • In these cases, it has so far always been the case that the package is in the USPS mailbox or USPS parcel locker (with a key to the parcel locker in the USPS mailbox).

So if your package is delivered and you don't see it, check your mailbox and/or your parcel locker.  


OAK-D-WIFI, OAK-D-POE, and OAK-1-POE

These 3 models are `stretch goal` models with shipping in March (we are still striving to hit this, and we'll do an update on the designs soon).


So one of the main confusions here is orders of say an OAK-1 and then an OAK-D, where the OAK-D was changed to an OAK-D-WIFI in BackerKit.  The backer then is alarmed to see only an OAK-1 arrive without and OAK-D.  Or worse, have a tripod arrive, with no OAK at all!


So in these cases it has always been the case (so far) that the other unit that did not arrive is one of the stretch-goal models that ships in March:

  • OAK-D-WIFI
  • OAK-D-POE
  • OAK-1-POE

So if you receive a package without everything you think it should have (e.g. missing an OAK-D), check your BackerKit for if you changed your OAK-D to one of these stretch-goal models.  


Delivery Updates in General

  •  1,754 orders have now been delivered.  
  •  2,688 shipped out on December 30th or 31st and are in transit.
  •  494 are "Out for Pick Pack" at floship (we are asking them why these still aren't shipping, after all errors have been cleared and floship has finally approved them for shipping).
  •  61 are pending approval.
  •  73 are incomplete (and we are continuing to work with backers to fix addresses/etc.).

Thanks, and we'll keep you posted,

Luxonis-Brandon from the OpenCV AI Kit Team

Crash Course + Competition
over 3 years ago – Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 10:08:34 PM

Hi folks!

The Crash Course for OAK will be released in 4 phases

Phase 1 : Quick Start Guide to OAK  

Release date : Jan 13th, 2021

1. Installation and Demo for OAK

2. Running Neural Inference for Object Detection, Segmentation, Pose Estimation, Depth Measurement and more.

Phase 2: Advanced Usage of OAK

Release date: Jan 22th, 2021

1. Understand the OAK API

2. Deploy your own models on OAK

3. Build an end-to-end pipeline ( from Data Annotation to Deployment on OAK) using SuperAnnotate. The tools provided by SuperAnnotate make is very easy for new users to train a custom model starting with annotating their own data. 

You will receive credits worth $200 from SuperAnnotate. Thank you SuperAnnotate!

Phase 3: Training Custom models using Microsoft Azure

Release date : Jan 31st, 2021

1. Train custom models using Azure. These tutorials will be great for people who want to directly use a Deep Learning framework for training. 

You will receive credits worth $50 from Microsoft Azure. Thank you Microsoft Azure for supporting us!

Phase 4: Advanced optimization using OpenVINO Toolkit

Release date : TBD

1. Tutorials on OpenVINO toolkit

2. Advanced methods of optimization using DLDT

You will receive passes to Intel's Dev Cloud. Stay tuned for the details. 

You will also get access to support via our Discord Channel.

Finally, this course will be frequently updated based on your feedback.

OpenCV AI Competition

OpenCV AI competition will launch tomorrow. 

https://opencv.org/opencv-ai-competition-2021

This is the biggest spatial AI competition in the world with more than $400k worth of prizes!

We will release the details of the competition tomorrow but today is the last day to sign up using the link above for a chance to win a free OpenCV AI Kit with Depth (OAK-D).

5 lucky winners will be announced tomorrow!

A BIG Thanks to our sponsors Microsoft Azure and Intel.

Shipping Update
over 3 years ago – Sat, Jan 09, 2021 at 07:54:54 PM

Hi Backers!

We have an update on shipping, logistics, etc.  Bear with us... this gets into what is going on in the background to the remainder of these shipping, and it's quite confusing.  And this is just the summary of what we've been working on.

Before that.  HUGE sorry for not responding to comments in the main KickStarter campaign for the last 14 days!  I (Brandon) personally missed these and I'm going through now and responding to all of them.

So what have we been doing?

We've been heads-down resolving issues with shipments, reaching out to many customers directly to resolve issues (ZIP code mismatches, their country's requirements/specifics of a Tax ID for the shipment, switching couriers, and then the couriers needing additional or different information), etc. across 84 different countries, and 15 different couriers (each with their own disparate address formatting needs/etc.).

Out of this total first-wave delivery of 4,850 shipments, 4,443 shipments have now gone out, and 885 have been delivered.  But if you recall from the previous updates, that means only 2 shipment went out this week! 


 How in the world did only 2 shipments go out this week? 

Well, that's a great question.  We learned the hard way. 

There's apparently a 7-day delay (at least) from when we resolve an issue with a shipment, to when floship actually ships.  And we don't get notified about an issue with a shipment until it tries to ship.

So after last week's shipping update (Dec. 31st), we were notified of all shipments that had some sort of blocking issue. We resolved a whole slew of issues with hundreds of shipments, last week and this week, but floship's 7-day+ turn-time from us resolving a shipment's issue, to that shipment actually shipping means that none of those shipped.  And the 2 that did shipped, had each had some issue that was resolved prior to the December 24h.

So that means, none of the 407 shipments that had some sort of issue have shipped yet.

But, progress is being made!

Out of these remaining 407 shipments that had some sort of issue, floship (as of this writing) is now reporting to us that 215 are in 'pick and pack' (the last stage prior to actually shipping) and 53 are 'pending fulfillment'.


So what does that mean?  

From our understanding of floship's turn-times, 268 of this remaining 407 should go out next week.


What about the rest?

This then leaves 140 orders from this first-wave delivery of a total of 4,850 that are in a state of error correction and approval by floship and the assigned couriers.

And we're working on all of them, actively.  We have 3 Electrical Engineers and 1 technical support engineer working full-time trying to resolve these.  (The rest of the team is firmware/software/AI, and their heads-down on that so it doesn't get slowed down.)


But wait, there's more!

Per floship rules, we had to lock the bulk shipment discussed above on December 1st.  This is because there is a 10-day delay between locking, and floship being ready to take in inventory at this scale.  And we had planned to (and did) delivery the inventory on December 11th.  

So we had to lock on December 1st or they wouldn't start the ball rolling to get the bulk shipment moving on the 4,850 orders that had addresses as of December 1st.  

And since December 1st, 126 backers, who had previously not entered their shipping address information, have now done so.  

So in parallel to the efforts above, we have been working on these additional 126 shipments after floship gave us the go-ahead to add them earlier this week, which increases the total orders to be delivered to 4,976 from 4,850. So this entails working with floship to investigate which couriers are active for each country and region each of the country, assigning couriers to these, and then once assigned, validating their addresses according to courier requirements, seeing what errors exist, fixing them if we can, and if we can't, reaching out to backers to get clarification or additional information.  Of these 126, now only 61 are in some form of error state.

Which brings the total number of shipments with some outstanding issue to 201.

And below is a summary of the current issues as we understand them so far.  

Keep in mind that sometimes solving one issue reveals another that couldn't previously be seen.  For example, resolving the issue that a courier is no longer available for a specific country or region by switching to a new one, often introduces a new issue, such as this new courier requiring additional information (like a recipients tax ID prior to shipment, which has occurred in Brazil, Taiwan, and several other countries upon switching couriers).


Break it down, now.

Here's the breakdown of the totality of remaining issues we are solving:

  •  64 have yet to have a courier assigned.  These are mostly backers who submitted addresses after December 1st, but some are those for which no courier was available when the first round of couriers were selected.
  •  45 need a TAX ID for the recipient (we have emailed all of you, if you're in Taiwan, for sure check your email).  (Update on this one, as I wrote this, we discovered that for every single Taiwan address that gets the Tax ID entered (collected by emailing backers), then pops up with an error that the address needs to be in Chinese.  So we need to re-reach out to backers to get their Chinese address as well.)
  •  33 need their address fixed and require the customer to provide the fix (as we cannot safely surmise the right answer).
  •  26 are subject to the selected courier no longer being available, so a new courier is being selected, and then address requirements re-verified with this new courier, and then if any issues the backer contacted to get this information fixed.
  •  18 have some error that is nebulous, and we haven't been able to determine from floship what the error is.  We are working with them on these.  floship is in HongKong, and the time-difference has been problematic, so we have pulled our EE who lives in Australia (Sydney) in to help.
  •  15 need the address information changed to the country's native language (instead of English) or in English (instead of the country's native language).  

With all that said, please keep an eye on your email for an email from aftership (for your tracking) or an email from us (luxonis.com; check your SPAM for [email protected]) to request address clarification/etc.  Some folks have not been responding to email, so we have also been reaching out via DM on KickStarter.  We'll start LinkedIN-ing people too, or Twitter, etc.  

If you are wondering about the status of your order. email us at [email protected], or reach out to us on our Community Discord.

And note that T-shirts will ship separately (we are absorbing the additional cost) in an effort to not cause any additional logistical delays.  

And as a reminder, OAK-1-POE, OAK-D-POE, and OAK-D-WIFI are currently set to start shipping in March (as planned).


Thanks,

The OpenCV AI Kit Team

Gen2 Pipeline Builder Introduction
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jan 08, 2021 at 05:09:25 PM

Hi Spatial AI + CV Community,


Today we are excited to introduce you to the Gen2 version of the open source depthai system that powers the OpenCV AI Kit.  We've been hard at work.  We feature-completed the Gen1 software, and in parallel have been hard at work architecting from the ground up our Gen2 pipeline builder system based on all sorts of feedback, including from the OpenCV Spatial AI Competition contestants and winners (summary of requests/ideas here) and right here on KickStarter.


How do I get going?  


The default examples for OAK still use the Gen1 system, as it is simpler and faster for you to explore generally what is possible, with a single command-line instruction.  Gen2 is infinitely more flexible, though, allowing all sorts of permutations of CV+AI pipelines, with a node-based pipeline builder.  


So to help show how to use many of these nodes (video encoding, depth, neural inference, etc.) we have prepared examples dedicated for each.  See our Gen2 Examples document below to try these out for yourself on your system.  

And if you haven't done so already, see our update on installing development tools and depthai on your preferred operating system, which we shared 2 updates ago, here.


And please feel free to sign up for our Discord Community for real-time discussion with our team and other OpenCV AI Kit backers.


More to come!


Thanks,

Brandon