CEVA and Immervision Enter into Strategic Partnership for Advanced Image Enhancement Technologies

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and MONTREAL, Aug. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CEVA, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEVA), the leading licensor of wireless connectivity and smart sensing technologies, today announced that it entered into a strategic partnership agreement with privately owned Immervision, Inc. of Montreal, Canada. A developer and licensor of wide-angle lenses and image processing technologies, Immervision's patented image enhancement algorithms and software technologies deliver dramatic improvements in image quality and remove the inherent distortions associated with the use of wide-angle cameras, particularly at the edges of the frame. Immervision's technologies have shipped in more than 50 million devices to date through its broad customer base, which includes Acer, Dahua, Garmin, Hanwha, Lenovo, Motorola, Quanta, Sony and Vivotek.

Under the partnership agreement, CEVA made a $10 million technology investment to secure exclusive licensing rights to Immervision's advanced portfolio of patented wide-angle image processing technology and software. This includes real-time adaptive dewarping, stitching, image color and contrast enhancement, and electronic image stabilization. CEVA will also license Immervision's Data-in-Picture proprietary technology, which integrates within each video frame fused sensory data, such as that offered by Hillcrest Labs (a business recently acquired by CEVA). This adds contextual information to each frame that enables better image quality, video stabilization and accurate machine vision in AI applications. The companies will also collaborate in licensing full end-to-end solutions comprised of Immervision's patented wide-angle Panomorph optical lens design and the complementary image enhancement software.

Immervision's hardware-agnostic software portfolio will continue to be offered for all System-on-Chip (SoC) platforms containing a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and in a power-optimized version for SoCs containing the CEVA-XM4 or CEVA-XM6 intelligent vision DSPs. Along with Immervision's software, CEVA also offers a broad range of other computer vision and AI software technologies, such as the CEVA Deep Neural Network (CDNN) - a neural networks graph compiler, the CEVA-SLAM software development kit, and the CEVA-CV optimized computer vision software library.

Gideon Wertheizer, CEO of CEVA, commented: "This strategic partnership and technology investment with Immervision provides CEVA with a significant market advantage for the fast growing wide-angle camera market, particularly in smartphones, surveillance, ADAS and robotics. Through the combination of Immervision's imaging technologies and CEVA's vision and AI software technologies, we are lowering the entry barriers for semiconductor providers and OEM customers into this lucrative, yet complex, technology space. As the innovator of the Panomorph lens technology, which offers superior image quality over the traditional fisheye lens for wide-angle cameras, Immervision is an excellent partner to expand our offering and royalty potential in the smart sensing space."

Pascal Nini, CEO of Immervision, commented: "Immervision is delighted to partner with CEVA, a technology leader with a strong presence in the smart camera space. CEVA's partnership enables us to further innovate our Panomorph lens and imaging technologies, and to capitalize on CEVA's market channels, global sales and support offices. Beyond accelerating our penetration and growth in key markets, this partnership also presents a great opportunity to build innovation in deep seeing. CEVA's DSP and AI processor portfolio and Immervision's new AI algorithms will unleash the power of wide-angle intelligent vision at the edge."  

For more information on Immervision's advanced imaging software offerings available from CEVA, visit https://www.ceva-dsp.com/product/ceva-immervision.

Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that if they materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of CEVA to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions.  Forward-looking statements include those relating to the potential benefits of the strategic partnership with Immervision, including (i) the advantages of Immervision's wide-angle processing technology and software, (ii) potentially providing CEVA with a significant market advantage for the fast growing wide-angle camera market, (iii) allowing a lower barrier to entry for semiconductor providers and OEM customers into this market, and (iv) potentially expanding CEVA's offering and royalty potential in the smart sensing space.  The risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause differing CEVA results  include: CEVA's ability to successfully leverage Immervision's technology to increase CEVA's customer base, product offerings and penetration of new markets, as well as other expectations with respect to the strategic partnership; unknown liabilities related to the licensing arrangement; CEVA's continued success in penetrating new markets and maintaining its market position in existing markets; CEVA's ability to diversify the company's royalty streams, the ability of products incorporating CEVA's technologies to achieve market acceptance; the effect of intense industry competition and consolidation, CEVA's ability to timely and successfully develop and introduce new technologies; and other risks relating to CEVA's business, including, but not limited to, those that are described from time to time in its SEC filings.  CEVA assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.

About Immervision
Immervision enables intelligent vision in any device. We design wide-angle lenses with augmented resolution to see more, and AI-ready image processing to see smarter. Our technology is for smart professional applications, consumer devices, automotive, robotics, medical, and other industries. We believe that vision is key to understanding and securing the environment and to entertaining and informing the world, so we continuously adapt our technology and license it to state-of-the-art component manufacturers, OEMs, and ODMs in the imaging eco-system. For more information, visit www.immervision.com

About CEVA, Inc.
CEVA is the leading licensor of wireless connectivity and smart sensing technologies. We offer Digital Signal Processors, AI processors, wireless platforms and complementary software for sensor fusion, image enhancement, computer vision, voice input and artificial intelligence, all of which are key enabling technologies for a smarter, connected world. We partner with semiconductor companies and OEMs worldwide to create power-efficient, intelligent and connected devices for a range of end markets, including mobile, consumer, automotive, robotics, industrial and IoT. Our ultra-low-power IPs include comprehensive DSP-based platforms for 5G baseband processing in mobile and infrastructure, advanced imaging and computer vision for any camera-enabled device and audio/voice/speech and ultra-low power always-on/sensing applications for multiple IoT markets. For sensor fusion, our Hillcrest Labs sensor processing technologies provide a broad range of sensor fusion software and IMU solutions for AR/VR, robotics, remote controls, and IoT. For artificial intelligence, we offer a family of AI processors capable of handling the complete gamut of neural network workloads, on-device. For wireless IoT, we offer the industry's most widely adopted IPs for Bluetooth (low energy and dual mode), Wi-Fi 4/5/6 (802.11n/ac/ax) and NB-IoT. Visit us at www.ceva-dsp.com and follow us on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

SOURCE CEVA, Inc.

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