proml

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Bloom Automation, a robotics company for the agriculture industry. we work with cannabis plants and other agricultural industries to create machine learning software that allows robots to harvest specific crops using computer vision. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CVision Lab?

We want to take pictures of the different parts of a plant – specifically a cannabis plant – and know the coordinates of each segment: leaves, flowers, and stems. The challenge we were facing was to achieve this task using computer vision, which typically requires a template that the program can make an exact match to. Instead, we’re faced with an ever-changing plant that will grow in different colors, sizes, and shapes. We needed a more advanced and accurate solution than we could achieve with typical computer vision.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CVision Lab started by creating an algorithm that takes pictures of a crop and tells a robot the coordinates for each part. Their team also created a second algorithm that we were planning to do ourselves. The goal is to let a robot navigate a crop to protect the flowers and remove the leaves. It’s not CVision Lab’s specialty, but they did take on the challenge. The algorithm generates trajectory maps for a robot so that it knows what path to follow to get the leaf. CVision Lab created the algorithm from scratch to completion.

What is the team composition?

There’s a core of 4–5 people at any given time. I always work with Oleg (Chief Business Development Officer) on the business side of things. There’s also a project manager who’s been with us since the start, Alexandra (Team Lead). We talk to their engineers as well, working with 2–4 at any given time. We’ve worked with seven different individuals over the project.

How did you come to work with CVision Lab?

We found them on UpWork. We were looking for a freelancer at first, but CVision Lab had reasonable prices and experience with medical imagery, which seemed like a transferrable skill.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $500,000–$2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in September 2017 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The work has been really top-notch. In that first algorithm, CVision Lab achieved 95%–100% accuracy, which was amazing considering that our team might have achieved 30%–40% accuracy at most. That took the algorithm something unusable to something that we can commercialize and make revenue on.

We get each deliverable weekly as a software build. They’re all professionally built and tested. CVision Lab has also been flexible to our needs. As a startup, we need things quickly or need to change course quickly. Even when we have to scale our financial involvement, they accommodate our needs. It’s been a great relationship. Our company and investors see tremendous value in CVision Lab’s services.

How did CVision Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re pretty good. We have 600 pages of documentation from them that I never specifically ordered. That’s an attribute to Alexandra’s organizational skills. She’s instrumental whenever we need something quick and have to organize our engineers and their engineers to work cohesively. They hold triweekly meetings with our engineers over web calls. The schedule is adhered to, and she’s always timely to meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their skills in machine learning and computer vision impress me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d have to ask our engineers. There’s nothing I can think of, honestly.

Any advice for potential customers?

There is a small language barrier so it’s better to visualize complex topics and be specific in your requirements and metrics.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own a small company that makes visual effects software, mostly for After Effects. Our customers are primarily artists for film and television.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CVisionLab?

Tasks involving quality of motion tracking, and interactivity with the Plug-in.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was simply to make a better experience for the user to motion track footage, and apply graphics.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I found them through other positive review on Upwork.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They researched and implemented frame-to-frame motion tracking for video. Efforts were made for speed and efficiency. They also implemented features for user interaction.

What was the team composition?

I've worked with four members, who specialized in C++. One member manages oversight, another assists with overview of algorithms, and the last two are C++ developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The customer feedback is evidence of the quality work they've provided. The Plug-in is now competing against plug-ins created by multi-million dollar companies. We've quickly begun to outpace our competitors in terms of features and speed. In general we have very few bugs, and the quality control is high.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I don't really concern myself with details about project management, which is how I've preferred it. I handle UI design, and focus on customer concerns. As far as I can tell, they remain very organized, and keep a well documented codebase that is easy for new developers to jump in and out of.

They help assist on scheduling releases and patches. They were a full service solution for the management side of the business. I still work with some outside freelancers, and they've managed to keep everything running smoothly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It's really just that they meet expectations and follow schedules. That's hard to find when hiring freelancers. Our roadmap is always drifting and reactive to user feedback, but in general their assessments on development time remains quick and consistent. We've done a good job following a reasonable roadmap, and adapting as the community needs change.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I'd say things are good. Sometimes we work on something for a while, and nothing productive comes out of it, but of course it's a learning experience. Learning what doesn't work is almost as valuable as learning what does. I can't complain, we hit the mark most of the time, and each month seems to be getting smoother.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Path-Keeper Surgical Ltd.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Medical device developer - Navigation system for spine surgery.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire proml to accomplish?

• ML for segmenting spine vertebrae from CT
• Enhanced support for deformity cases

SOLUTION

How did you find proml?

approach by vendor

Why did you select proml over others?

Good understanding of problem

How many teammates from proml were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Develop full ML system for separating CT of spine to vertebrae, including localization, segmentation, and bone extraction. Deal with complex deformity and anatomy cases.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Delivery of working system in stages of development
• improvement of system performance over time.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Project manager delivered detailed weekly reports on time, deliverables had clear dates and performance measures. Response to comments was very good.

What was your primary form of communication with proml?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

proml's professional, goal-oriented approach and their very good support for customer needs were impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something proml could have done differently?

Overall - happy with the work, will use them again if relevant.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Post Production Supervisor at a globally recognized entertainment production company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CVisionLab, and what were your goals?

We were looking for custom software and VFX pipeline development. CVisionLab were our R&D partners on combining several proven workflows, and they helped us blend together the proper formatting, functionality and tools to reach our end goal.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We discovered them on a recommendation from a trusted artist and pipeline/tool developer.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had weekly, monthly and project milestones that we worked through on a weekly basis. There was a ton of collaboration between various teams on various continents, and CVision helped to deliver a suite of tools and processes that were key to launching our project.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

1-2 lead developers, 2 developers, 1 project manager and 1 supervisor.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were able to "invent" something that hadn't existed before, so that was a major positive outcome for us.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

They were incredibly clear communicators. Every meeting was clearly outlined and feedback was measured. They managed the timeline very well and always managed our expectations well.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their project management and technical expertise was extremely impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Honestly, I would recommend their services to anyone.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO, we allow the user to create virtual tours using the smartphone only.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CVisionLab?

Create a stitching algorithm for spherical panoramas

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I did a comparison between top 10 computer vision companies in the world.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

I can't go into much details, but it was to create a stitching algorithm

What was the team composition?

2 developer+ 1 project manager + team leader

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We released an MVP ios application.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was excellent, they provided very detailed reports.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The ability to create this algorithm, and the innovation.

Are there any areas for improvement?

no