They started by making soccer match summaries and are now able to detect fake news using word and image analysis algorithms. They are Ugiat Technologies, a company that emerged from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in 2015 and accelerated by Wayra (Telefónica). Specifically, Ugiat has its origins in a collaboration between a group of teachers and students from the Department of Signal Theory and Communications of the UPC with TV3. Within the framework of a Spanish project of the National Strategic Consortiums in Technical Research (Cenit), this group of teachers and students applied artificial intelligence techniques to video shots of professional soccer matches to make possible a summary of the most interesting plays. .
The success of the project led them to look for more applications for the developed technology and they thought about advertising. “Instead of ads appearing randomly, artificial intelligence analyzes the optimal time for their broadcast,” says Francesc Tarrés, one of the managers of the university project and co-founder of the resulting startup together with former students Raül Quijada and Arnau Raventós. The proposal captured the interest of another great audiovisual player: Atresmedia. “For example, if a scene of people eating appears in a movie, it may be the appropriate moment to insert an advertisement for a restaurant chain,” says Tarrés.
Over time, Ugiat Technologies has opened its field of action beyond football and advertisements. “70% are solutions on demand or adaptations,” says the co-founder. Among the new services, an automatic system for the translation and dubbing of audiovisuals or a tool to calculate the time that politicians appear on a television program stands out, for example. However, the most innovative solution is false news detection systems based on word and image analysis algorithms.
Ugiat Technologies works for the country’s large audiovisual companies: RTVE, Mediapro, Atresmedia, the Catalan Corporation of Audiovisual Media… Currently, Tarrés and Quijada (Raventós left the company) are negotiating agreements with companies from other countries to grow geographically . “The product is international”, says Tarrés.
Based in Mollet del Vallès and a team of five people, the startup closed 2022 with a turnover of 200,000 euros. For this year, the co-founders expect to reach a turnover of 300,000 euros.
