Grant: Engage Grants Program

Missing Link Technologies manages data centers consisting of a large number of racks consisting of communication servers. In order to maintain the inventory of servers, an expert needs to physically sift through the racks and make decisions on movements of servers. The company has developed software to simplify the decision process. However, the software needs an accurate database of the existing inventory. The company proposes to deploy a system to acquire images of racks of networking equipment and the system makes recommendations on available shelves for new equipment. The image acquisition can be done by a human taking images of the racks and may eventually be automated with the help of a robotic system. This project will design and implement a module that will analyze the acquired images to summarize the content of the server racks and store the summaries in a database. The database will also include an image library consisting of crisp and clear images of the equipment that is commonly found on these racks. The contents of the racks will be matched against the equipment in the image library. The company's research shows that there is no other comparable product on the market. The proposed system will give them a competitive advantage with an increased productivity and efficient management of equipment.