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Carbon Impact -
Case Study

Xailient Edge AI Computer Vision has a significantly smaller Carbon Footprint than Cloud AI

Synopsis

AI-powered IoT cameras are on track to add over 4 trillion kilograms in annual carbon dioxide emissions (Kg CO2e) by 2030, the equivalent of adding 860 million cars to the road in a decade.

Better AI has the potential to reduce these emissions significantly.

Key Outcome

1Better AI can save 98.8% of carbon emissions than regular AI-powered IoT cameras.

Problem Statement

IoT devices, like all electronics, consume power. But the internet-connected nature of these devices means that much of the carbon impact is not apparent from the owner’s electric bill. Network connectivity and cloud-based AI contribute to the total carbon footprint.

Activity

Edge devices consume substantially less power than cloud devices. Here’s what we found:

01

An Edge device with a camera produces 4kg of CO2 per year.

* We assume the use-case requires near real-time framerate. Since we can already achieve ~24 FPS on a single RPi3B+ core, the max capacity per RPi3B+ is 4 near real-time cameras since it has 4 cores.

02

Network Access produces 123kg CO2 per year.

03

Cloud Inference produces 168kg CO2 per year.

* We assume that to achieve the same near real-time frame-rate (~24 FPS) per camera as the reference RPi3B+, a cloud GPU (without Xailient’s DNN) would only manage 5 cameras using YOLOv3 (since a YOLOv3 inference on a Titan X GPU (much faster than K80) is only 34 ms/frame on average).

Results

Market Size

The number of IoT devices is expected to reach 125-500 Billion by 2030, and assuming that 20% of them will have cameras, IoT devices with cameras are a 13-100 billion unit market. Considering that 12% of the market has Xailient Edge AI, 500 million tonnes of CO2 will be saved annually by 2030.

End-to-end Savings

Each AI Camera device produces 4 KgCO2e per year. With Cloud AI, the network for data transmission produces 123 Kg of CO2 per year, and Cloud inference produces 198 Kg CO2e per year. In contrast, with Edge AI, networking and the Cloud are not required as processing takes place at the Edge device, closer to the data source, thus saving 98.8% of CO2 production per year.

Next Steps

Xailient saves 321 KgCO2e per AI camera device per year. A US car produces about 60,000 KgCO2e in its lifetime and produces 4600 Kg CO2e per year. With 15 Xailient AI installs, Xailient can save one car equivalent of CO2.

With 1.6 billion cameras, Xailient can save 500 million Tonnes of CO2e/year. The equivalent of taking 108 million cars off the road

Discussion

Xailient Computer Vision systems are so efficient they can run at the Edge, even on existing hardware. When deploying new hardware, the Detectum software allows for smaller chips. Less computation and smaller hardware. This means AI with a smaller carbon footprint, and Edge deployment means less waste in transmitting data.

Press releases

January 18, 2024

NEWS PROVIDED BY Xailient Inc.  18 Jan, 2024, 01:13 ET SYDNEY, Jan. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Xalient customer Abode, a leading provider of DIY smart home security solutions, has been recognized for their innovative new product, the Abode Edge Camera. Xailient AI runs inside the Abode Edge Camera, watching for anomalies like package deliveries or strangers on the […]

November 1, 2023

NEWS PROVIDED BY Xailient  25 Oct, 2023, 09:05 ET Wi-Fi HaLow™ Technology Enables Long-Range, Low-Power Connectivity for Smart Cameras SYDNEY and IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Xailient, the leader in edge artificial intelligence (AI) for computer vision, today announced a strategic partnership with Morse Micro, a fast-growing fabless semiconductor company focused on Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity. Together, they […]

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