Face recognition is widely used today, from unlocking phones to enhancing surveillance systems. However, this technology often relies on large datasets of internet photos collected without consent, raising privacy and ethical concerns. To address this, researchers at Idiap have developed a synthetic (fake but realistic) face dataset, offering a privacy-friendly alternative without compromising model performance.
Robots designed to empower people with mobility disabilities are complex and difficult to adopt, as they require sophisticated movements to complete even basic tasks. At Idiap, researchers have developed a software that allows the robot to adapt to the unique needs of these people to provide a user-friendly experience.
Sébastien Marcel, senior scientist at Idiap, has been elevated to IEEE Fellow, effective January 1, 2025. The IEEE fellowship testifies “the advancement or application of engineering, science and technology, bringing the realization of significant value to society”[1].
We are starting the 2025 Idiap Distinguished Lectures with a special guest: Samy Bengio.
We are pleased to share our 2024 Scientific Report, highlighting key advancements across Idiap’s research programs: Human-AI Teaming, Sustainable & Resilient Societies, AI for Life, and AI for Everyone. Additionally, the report presents Fundamental AI advances across all programs.
Explore AI at Idiap's "Afternoons of Discoveries"! Interact with robots, visit some research labs, and much more!
Predicting and analyzing political bias, as well as checking the reliability of sources, could be a game-changing solution for professionals and organizations in a society where misinformation is a daily occurrence. This is what a team at Idiap, under the supervision of Dr. Petr Motlicek, has worked on by proposing a new approach to media information analysis.
The Idiap Research Institute is proud to announce the winners of the 13th edition of the Idiap Create Challenge (ICC), which took place from August 20 to 28. This hackathon, fully dedicated to artificial intelligence, brought together international developers and innovators eager to turn their ideas into prototypes.
Idiap Research Institute is thrilled to announce the 13th edition of its hackathon, a highly anticipated event that facilitates the translations of ideas into prototypes. This year’s hackathon, set to take place from August 20th to 28th, 2024, has received the highest number of applications ever, and promises to be one of our most exciting and competitive yet.
Doctolib, a major e-health European player, has announced the acquisition of Typeless, a spin-off from the Idiap Research Institute specializing in artificial intelligence-based voice recognition. This technological breakthrough was greatly facilitated by a year-long collaboration between Typeless and Idiap.
Tilak Purohit and Barbara Ruvolo, contributing to Idiap’s AI for Life research program, won the 1st prize at the Lemanic Life Science Hackathon organized at EPFL at the end of April 2024. The team also included EPFL Life Science bachelor's students Alexandra Psaltis, Jia Xian Jennifer Shan, and Elise Boyer Their outcome is an AI-enabled user interface prototype to support the detection of depression via speech.
We are thrilled to announce that, for the third consecutive year, the Idiap Research Institute will participate on May 14th in the annual Pint of Science Valais Festival, taking place from May 13th to May 15th 2024. This worldwide event, renowned for its commitment to making science accessible to all, aligns perfectly with the institute’s mission to engage and inspire the broader public about the potentials and advancements in Artificial Intelligence.
Understanding and explaining how AI works is key to build trust and have better human-AI collaborations. In partnership with researchers from Lausanne, Zurich, and Adelaide, our colleague Damien Teney published an article providing a fresh explanation of neural networks’ capabilities.
Each year the institute gives two awards to distinguish two of its students. In 2023, the Best Paper Award went to Tobias Löw, and the Student Award to Hatef Otroshi Shahreza. Congratulations!
Idiap and the 3D2cut company developed a system capable of identifying vines and of assisting pruning. A scientific publication resulted from this collaboration. This project was supported by the The Ark foundation for innovation in Valais.
Idiap researchers and their colleagues worldwide are investigating the generalization and personalization of models using mobile sensor data to infer people’s mood. A Distinguished Paper Award at the Ubicomp/ISWC conference recognized the scientific publication presenting this research.
In a systematic review, Idiap researchers analyzed urban data crowdsourcing platforms around the world. Their work highlights the growing role of these platforms to inform urban policies and shed light on the state of development of these tools.
In June, Dr. Matteo Sorci joined Idiap as Innovation Manager, bringing to the Institute his 14-year innovation expertise gained in the world of high-tech development and commercialization.
After nine days of intense work, Idiap Research Institute has announced the winners of the 12th edition of the Idiap Create Challenge (ICC) 2023. This artificial intelligence hackathon brought together engineers and creatives from several countries to transform their ideas into working prototypes with the help of the institute.
As artificial intelligence technologies reach everyday new performances, their energy cost is also increasing significantly. Idiap researchers are proposing a novel approach to address this challenge during a period of rising energy costs.
On 1 May 2023 the Board of Directors of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences elected five new members to the Swiss Young Academy (SYA). With this election, the Academies acknowledge the ideas and commitment of the newly-elected members at the interfaces between science, society and politics.
Attracted to Idiap thanks to the Idiap Female Fellowship Researchers program, Raphaëlle Luisier has been promoted to permanent researcher at the Institute.
Idiap hosted a Biometrics Week. This one of a kind event gathered several hundreds of people from various backgrounds ranging from academia to industry. Organizers included the European Association for Biometrics and the US based Center for Identification Technology Research.
An Innosuisse project allowed Idiap to set up AI tools able to help experts to study the manufacturability of new aluminum elements requested by their customers.
The Idiap Research Institute uses signal processing and machine learning to design effective tools to improve people’s daily lives, especially those with communication difficulties. Ina Kodrasi, head of the Signal Processing for Communication group, is contributing to significant advances in the field of pathological speech.
Created in 2022, Cross Research Groups will foster collaborations between Idiap research groups. Their aim is to have long-term impacts on society thanks to an approach mixing both business oriented solutions and interdisciplinary scientific groundwork.
Luminous paints make it possible to tell the time on analogue timepieces even in the dark. These compounds are still applied manually, as conventional automation solutions are not suitable for this task. That’s why researchers from Idiap and Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH are developing a flexible robot system that can be programmed by showing it what to do.
Head of the Social Computing research group, Daniel Gatica-Perez has contributed to Idiap’s vision of Artificial Intelligence for Society since 2002. Last year, he received two awards recognizing his long-term impact at the interface between technology and society.
Every year, the Institute nominates two students for its internal awards. In 2022, the Paper Award goes to Alexandre Bittar, and the Student Award goes to Teguh Lembono. Congratulations!
In anticipation of the retirement of its current director, Hervé Bourlard, the Idiap Foundation Council is pleased to announce that Andrea Cavallaro will soon be taking over as director of the institute. He is also appointed full professor at EPFL’s School of Engineering.
Improving Biometric Privacy with Generative AI
