Outsight says its new Augmented Lidar Box (ALB) is the first real-time lidar software engine to allow application developers and integrators to seamlessly use lidar data from any hardware supplier.
Created as a turnkey solution, the ALB enables AV developers to leverage the unique value of 3D spatial while avoiding the complexity of processing 3D data in real time. The new product has been validated with various customers across sectors and countries, and Outsight has formed strategic partnerships with leading lidar suppliers including Velodyne, Ouster, Hesai and Robosense.
Outsight says there is no lidar hardware that can fit all applications and contexts. The ALB is an enabling computing layer regardless of the end-user application and lidar supplier, so integrators and solution providers are not constrained by the limitations of specific sensors.
ALB enables AV engineers to leverage the unique value of real-time 3D spatial intelligence that lidar technology creates, without having to deal with the complexity of processing raw lidar data or going through the hassle of assessing and selecting a lidar from dozens of hardware suppliers. Outsight describes ALB as ‘the first lidar pre-processor’ – a real-time software engine that can turn any lidar into a spatial intelligence device. It overcomes the complexity of using raw 3D data, so any application developers or integrators can efficiently use lidar in their own solutions without needing to become 3D lidar experts.
The ALB provides a comprehensive set of fundamental features that are commonly required in almost every application (localization and mapping, 3D SLAM, object ID and tracking, segmentation and classification, etc). Because it only requires an ARM CPU and its AI doesn’t rely on machine learning, the solution is power efficient and doesn’t need any training or annotation efforts.
“The hardware aspect of lidar is becoming a commodity, with prices decreasing very quickly together with impressive performance improvements,” notes Raul Bravo, president and co-founder of Outsight. “However, this new animal in the computer vision landscape remains a complex technology for most customers to use. As has happened every time in the modern-day history of technology adoption, we’re convinced that the key condition required for lidar to become mainstream is the emergence of enabling software.”
The launch of ALB follows the successful deployment of Outsight’s technology at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in France, to provide accurate real-time monitoring of people flow while preserving data privacy.