Cameras Taking a Step into Making the Unseen Visible
2021/04/19
- Summary
- Bright Way Vision
- Foresight
- NODAR
- Conclusion
Summary
About This Report
This report was written by VSI Labs (VSI) for MarkLines' portal users. VSI is a technology research company that provides industry with deep insight and analysis on the enabling technologies used for active safety and automated driving.
This technology report was written by Anas Al Badi. (February 25, 2021)
Introduction
Vision-based companies are pushing their technologies to the limit. They are committed to enhancing their existing autonomous solutions to make autonomous vehicles confident in their respective applications. Examples of this can be seen in sensors such as stereo cameras or modules that contain both RGB and thermal cameras. As will be discussed in this paper, cameras can serve as the primary sensor in an autonomous vehicle.
Not only are companies enhancing their cameras to have a better resolution or smaller form factor, they are also improving the accuracy of their detectors. Companies are finding ways to improve perception performance with hardware and software enhancements.
Bright Way Vision purports to create a better image for perception software by using an illuminator paired with a near IR camera. Foresight has developed software that allows the use of stereo cameras to be paired and placed anywhere and can generate accurate and dense point clouds.
Each player has a module that aims to tackle various challenges of perception like extreme weather conditions with the goal of mass production for the ADAS/AD market. Bright Way Vision (BWV), Foresight, and NODAR are relatively new players that are pushing hard to achieve this goal.
Cameras are generally passive sensors meaning they only absorb natural light reflections from the scene. Active sensors on the other hand use invisible light emitters to illuminate the scene for added performance. Active sensors are more complex and typically involve more hardware. Passive cameras are relatively inexpensive and improving all the time.
VSI Labs reports:
CES 2021 Round-up: Industry Leaders Still Stood Out at Digital CES (Jan. 2021)
The Role of Big Tech in AV Development (Dec. 2020)
Is Tesla an Auto Company or a Tech Company? (Nov. 2020)
Tesla Bets on Urban ADAS: Traffic Light & Stop Sign Control (Aug. 2020)
Impacts of COVID-19: Can the AV/ADAS Market Survive a Pandemic? (Jul. 2020)
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