LDV Blog

We launched the first annual LDV Vision Summit five years ago, in 2014, with the goal of bringing together our visual technology ecosystem to explore how visual technology is empowering business and society.

Our gathering is built from the ground up, by and for our diverse visual tech ecosystem - from entrepreneurs to researchers, professors and investors, media and tech execs, as well as content creators and anyone in between. We put our Summit together for us all to find inspiration, build community, recruit, find co-founders, raise capital, find customers, and help each other succeed.

Every year we highlight experts working on cutting edge technologies and trends across every sector of business and society. We do not repeat speakers and we are honored that many attendees join every year.

Below are many of the themes that will be showcased at our 6th LDV Vision Summit.

Visual Technologies Revolutionizing Medicine

Visual assessment is critical to healthcare — whether that is a doctor peering down your throat as you say “ahhh” or an MRI of your brain. Over the next ten years, healthcare workflows will become mostly digitized, more personal data will be captured and computer vision, along with artificial intelligence, will automate the analysis of that data for precision care. Our speakers will showcase how they are deploying visual technologies to revolutionize medicine:

• CIONIC is superpowering the human body.
• Ezra is a new way to screen for prostate cancer.
• MGH/Harvard Medical School has developed AI that is better than most experts at diagnosing a childhood blindness disease.
• Teledoc Health provides on-demand remote medical care.
• and more...

Computational Imaging Will Power Business ROI

Computational imaging refers to digital image capture and processing techniques that use digital computation instead of optical processes. Entrepreneurs and research scientists from Facebook, Sea Machines, Cornell Tech, and University College London will enlighten on how their research is delivering valuable results.

• GM and Cruise Automation are using state-of-the-art software and hardware to create the world's first scalable AV fleet.
• The inference of 3D information from the video acquired from a single moving camera.
• Deep convolutional neural network (ConvNet) for multi-view stereo reconstruction.
• Image Quality and Trust in Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces.
• and more...

Synthetic Data Is Disrupting Legacy Businesses

Synthetic data is computer-generated data that mimics real data; in other words, data that is created by a computer, not a human. Software algorithms can be designed to create realistic simulated, or “synthetic,” data. This computer generated data is disrupting legacy businesses including Media Production, E-Commerce, Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality, and Entertainment. Experts speaking on this topic include:

• Synthesia Delivers AI-driven video production.
• Forma Technologies is building photorealistic avatars that are a dynamic form for people’s online identity.
• and more...

Where Are The Next Visual Tech Unicorns?

A large number of visual technology businesses have already broken the $1B ceiling: Pinterest, DJI, Magic Leap, Snap, Zoom, Zoox, etc. With applications of computer vision and machine learning on an exponential rise, top investors in visual technologies will discuss the sectors and trends they see with the most potential for unicorn status in the near future:

• Nabeel Hyatt, Spark Capital
• Rachel Lam, Imagination Ventures
• Matt Turck, FirstMark Capital
• Laura Smoliar, Berkley Catalyst Fund
• Hadley Harris, Eniac
• Zavian Dar, Lux Capital
• and more...

Experiential Media is the Future

The Internet and digital media have built reputations for nameless, faceless actors and disconnection but advances in tech and new approaches are changing that. Whether through interactive video or a live music video game, visual technologies are creating experiences that connect people to content & each other.

• FTW Studios is creating experiences designed to bring people together — to be a part of live, shared moments.
• Section4 is reinventing professional operational media, making it succinct, discoverable, provocative, and actionable.
• Eko is an interactive storytelling platform that continues to be a leader in Choice Driven Entertainment.
• and more...

Nanophotonics are Pushing the Envelope

Nanophotonics can provide high bandwidth, high speed and ultra-small optoelectronic components. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize telecommunications, computation and sensing.

• Voyant is creating the next generation of chip-scale LIDAR
• MacArthur Fellow Michal Lipson is a physicist known for her work on silicon photonics. Working on many projects such as drastically lowering cost and energy of high power computing for artificial intelligence.
• and more...

Factory to Front Door, Visual Tech is Improving Logistics

Breakthrough visual technologies will transform the speed, safety and efficiency of agriculture, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics. Legacy actors and startups alike are finding fascinating use cases to implement computer vision and machine learning to improve their processes:

• Plus One’s software & computer vision tackles the challenges of material handling for logistics.
• Level 4 Autonomous Vehicles for Urban Logistics.
• and more...