NVIDIA Maxine improves video calls and conferencing with AI

NVIDIA's new platform can reduce the bandwith of video calls and make calls feel more natural.

What you need to know

• NVIDIA announced the NVIDIA Maxine platform, which uses AI to improve video calls and streaming.
• The platform can reduce call bandwidth while also improving call quality.
• Developers can sign up for early access now to work on integrating NVIDIA Maxine with their respective platforms.

NVIDIA announced NVIDIA Maxine today, a platform which utilizes AI to improve video conferencing and video streaming. The platform can be utilized by developers to improve calls in several ways, including reducing bandwidth, improving quality, and enhancing video calls. Developers can apply for early access to NVIDIA Maxine now to start working on integrating the platform with their services and apps.

Video streaming is the number one source of traffic on the internet. NVIDIA Maxine can reduce how much traffic each call and meeting takes up. The technology uses AI to analyze key facial points of people on calls and then re-animates the face on the other end of the video call. The end result is dramatically reduced bandwidth for video calls. NVIDIA states that calls using NVIDIA Maxine can use as low as one-tenth of the bandwidth needed for the h.264 compression standard.

NVIDIA Maxine also has several features that make virtual calls feel more personal, such as aligning someone's face, so it appears as if they're looking right at the camera and auto reframing people to follow a speaker.

NVIDIA Maxine runs on the cloud, meaning that it doesn't take up processing resources from local machines. This makes it possible to use the platform on computers, tablets, and phones.