ADI and Microsoft Corp. announced a strategic collaboration to leverage Microsoft’s 3D time-of-flight (ToF) sensor technology, enabling customers to easily design high-performance 3D applications that bring higher degrees of depth accuracy and work regardless of the environmental conditions in the scene. ADI’s technical expertise will build upon Microsoft Azure Kinect technology to provide ToF solutions to a much wider audience in areas such as Industry 4.0, automotive, gaming, augmented reality, computational photography and videography.
Currently, the industrial market is seeing a push for 3D imaging systems that can be used in harsh environments where cutting-edge applications such as human-collaboration robots, room mapping, and inventory management systems are required to bring Industry 4.0 to life. ToF applications are also needed to create safer automobile experiences for drivers and passengers by outfitting vehicles with occupancy detection and driver monitoring capabilities.
A new platform to offer plug and play features for fast and large-scale deployment
“Our customers want depth image capture that ‘just works’ and is as easy as taking a photo,” said Duncan Bosworth, General Manager, Consumer Business Unit, Analog Devices. “Microsoft’s ToF 3D sensor technology used in the HoloLens mixed-reality headset and Azure Kinect Development Kit is seen as the industry standard for time-of-flight technologies. Combining this technology with custom-built solutions from ADI, our customers can easily deploy and scale the next generation of high-performance applications they demand, out of the box.”
Analog Devices is designing, manufacturing, and selling a new product series of 3D ToF imagers, laser drivers, software and hardware-based depth systems that will provide great depth resolutions with accuracy down to the millimeter. ADI will start building full systems wrapped around complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) imagers to deliver imaging with greater 3D detail, operating over farther distances, and performing robustly regardless of what is in line of sight. This platform will provide customers with plug and play features for fast and large-scale deployment.
Highly accurate depth measurement, low noise, high robustness to multipath interference, and calibration solutions for ease of manufacturing
“Analog Devices is an established leader in translating physical phenomena into digital information,” stated Cyrus Bamji, Microsoft Partner Hardware Architect, Microsoft. “This collaboration will expand market access of our ToF sensor technology and enable the development of commercial 3D sensors, cameras, and related solutions, which will be compatible with a Microsoft ecosystem built on top of Microsoft depth, Intelligent Cloud, and Intelligent Edge platforms.”
ToF 3D sensor technology projects precisely controlled laser light in durations of nanoseconds, which then reflect from the scene onto a high-resolution image sensor giving a depth estimate for every pixel in the image array. ADI’s new CMOS ToF products based on Microsoft’s technology enables highly accurate depth measurement, low noise, high robustness to multipath interference, and calibration solutions for ease of manufacturing. ADI’s products and solutions are already being sampled and the first 3D imaging products using Microsoft technology are expected to be released by the end of 2020.
