Technology Overview

 

  • Patent-pending optics

  • IR or Visible Lights

  • Coded Beacons (high speed flashing for unique ID)

  • Low Cost

  • Low Processing and Operating Power

  • Low Latency

  • Privacy – Not a camera - No images taken or stored.
     

 

The Challenges We Solve

 

The Problem with Visual Slam

  • Uncontrolled environment (complex scenes,
    random lighting environments, motion blur)

  • Huge data pipeline (1 Megapixel camera at 50FPS generates
    >50Mbytes of data/second)

 

The Sixdof Solution

  • Concentrate only on bright and high contrast objects with shutters of <1ms

  • Image compression at optical domain

  • Small data sets allow SLAM iterations as rapidly as every 1ms

  • At 1KHz frame rates user movements are typically well below 1o angular and <1cm translational

 

 

Our Data Reduction Technique

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Our core IP involves compressing two dimensional images into one dimensional representation while conserving angular entropy. As illustrated with the curved dome slit over a linear CMOS sensor below, light from any elevation angle β arriving at a given azimuth angle α will be integrated at the same pixel, while light from different azimuth angles α will be mapped to a unique pixel on the sensor.


The result is an instantaneous 1-dimensional representation of the 2-dimensional image scene. Using 2 perpendicular sensors we can then reconstruct both the azimuth and elevation angles to all the lights in a scene with a fraction of the data bandwidth.

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We have developed a custom toroidal compression lens which we are manufacturing via injection molding.

 

Toroid Lens Module Performance

 

  • Large field of view (>120 degrees in both axes)

  • High optical efficiency – large NA

  • Very high image resolution

  • Single element optic design

  • 1K pixel low-cost linear CMOS sensor

  • 0.5 mSec shutter or less

  • Up to 1KHz readout rate

  • At 8-bit quantization, still only 1MByte/sec
    of data per sensor

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Summary – Unique Benefits

 

  • Uses existing room lighting as reference beacons

  • Low-cost, low-power and installation-free

  • Large field of view with very low data bandwidth

  • Tracking rates up to 1KHz

  • End-to-end latency (motion to absolute pose data) as low as 2ms

  • Minimal disruption to work site

  • Avoid Security and privacy issues of cameras

  • Flexible integration