Panasonic HD debuts SparseVLM to boost Vision AI speed

Panasonic R&D Company of America (PRDCA) and Panasonic Holdings Co., Ltd. (Panasonic HD), in collaboration with researchers from Peking University, Fudan University, University of California, Berkeley, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, have developed “SparseVLM,” a technology that reduces the weight of the Vision-Language Model (VLM), an AI model that understands visual information (image and video information) in language.

In recent years, VLM, an AI model that processes visual and text information simultaneously and answers questions about visual information, has been actively developed. However, there is a problem that the amount of information handled by the AI ​​model increases, especially with high-resolution images and long videos, resulting in increased inference time and calculation volume. The developed “SparseVLM” takes a new approach of processing (sparse) only the visual information related to the input prompt, and has succeeded in significantly reducing inference time and calculation volume while maintaining high accuracy in answering questions about images.

This technology has been internationally recognized as being advanced and has been accepted for presentation at the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2025), a top conference for AI and machine learning technologies. The technology will be presented at the conference, which will be held in Vancouver, Canada from July 13 to July 19, 2025.

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The newly developed “SparseVLM” is a technology that roughly doubles the processing speed while maintaining question-answering accuracy by considering input prompts that were not taken into account in conventional VLM lightweighting methods. It is expected to be used in many fields that require rapid recognition and verbalization of the user’s state and surrounding environment from visual information.

Panasonic HD will continue to accelerate the implementation of AI in society and promote research and development of AI technologies that will contribute to improving our customers’ lives and workplaces.

SOURCE: PRTimes