If you've been wanting to put 3D sensing on your copter but were put off by the size/power or computational requirements of a Kinect, perhaps the Capri is what you've been waiting for. No pictures available until it's launched next week at CES (the above video just gives a hint of use cases in consumer electronics).
From Mashable:
When we look back at this year's CES, we may remember it as the year of the sensor. Wearable and embeddable sensor technology will be everywhere, and right there at the heart of at least some of it will be PrimeSense. The Israeli-based company created the 3D environmental mapping tech behind Microsoft's Kinect motion sensor for the Xbox 360 and, at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, PrimeSense will unveil what it calls the "World's Smallest" 3D sensor: the Capri.
As thin as a pencil and no larger than a stick of gum, Capri could herald a new era in 3D-sensing-capable products and services. As PrimeSense sees it, the Capri is small enough to go virtually anywhere: from house-cleaning robots to laptops, and from computer screens to tiny smartphones. Company execs describe it as "giving sight" to all of these devices.
PrimeSense's 3D sensor technology works by first bathing the area in front of it in a sophisticated, near- infra-red light mesh. This creates a grid that a second sensor can read. The algorithm uses the information to get a complete, live, fully 3D picture of the room -- including people and objects in it. (In Kinect, Microsoft added its own gesture-recognition software.)
While using many of the same 3D sensing technologies found in Kinect, Capri is 10 times smaller, includes a new system on a chip (SoC) and, PrimeSense representatives told me, features more powerful algorithms. The new reference design (PrimeSense is a fabless company that does not actually build the sensors) is even, according to company representatives, more affordable, a key attribute that could make it more attractive to consumer electronics manufacturers looking to add 3D motion control and interaction to their products.
At CES 2013, PrimeSense and its partners will demonstrate the tiny Capri inside a wide variety of consumer products and applications including 3D gesture-recognition signage from CoVii, real-time shopper behavior analytics from ShopPerception, a 3D interior design application from Matterport.
Comments
Cost, performance and ease-of-use will all tell how truly "game changing" this device is. Certainly looks promising though!
I could just be me but I don't see much of a game changer here.
this looks fun and will work in niche areas but over all these kind of interface isn't more efficient then the other tech. it's kind of like nice looking but less efficient then what came before it which is a problem. for us yes this will likely do a bit of good but yeah.,
After first watching, i was thinking, they just focused on motion detection, but 0:46, yeah! And if power consumption is low, it will be a real game changer.
This would definitely be a game changer if the depth perception was provided on the device itself (unlike the Leap Motion if I am correct). If they can recognize gestures like in that video, the resolution would be adequate for obstacle detection etc. I'd be curious to see how it works in areas with lots of ambient light.
One could probably do an open source version of this with the PX4FLOW and some additional hardware...