With the continuous development of technology, the Internet of Things and the Internet have become an indispensable part of our real life, and the Time of Flight (ToF) sensor is one of the key technologies to realize IoT , playing a huge role in smart home and smart. Security, smart retail, smart healthcare, smart agriculture and other fields .

        On December 21, 2018, on the "25th "Micro-Speaking" Seminar: Lidar Technology and Applications, sponsored by MEMS and UBM, Mr. Bill Liu, CEO of OPNOUS, analyzed   ToF sensor evoluting from 3D perception to 4D perception.

        ToF sensors are everywhere in the IoT field

        IoT has always been in an unresolved state of "all thunder and no rain," and it is gratifying that in recent years, various IoT applications have begun to land, and the 3D sensing technology based on ToF sensor has also opened a new chapter in IoT applications.

        At the beginning of the speech, Mr. Bill Liu first explained the reason that ToF sensors can be used to enable IoT applications: “AR/VR glasses for depth and orientation information recognition; 3D face recognition is also expected to usher in a big outbreak of ToF solutions;
Sweeping robots switch from traditional single-line mechanical scanning laser radar to ToF laser radar ranging; smart home, intelligent security, smart retail, ToF sensors are used to identify and track the human body, making all aspects of human life more intelligent;
In the field of autonomous driving / in-vehicle sensing and monitoring / AGV, ToF sensor is an important component of vehicle laser radar, in-vehicle human body recognition, and in-vehicle gesture recognition; even in agriculture and animal husbandry, ToF sensor can also be used to measure and monitor vegetative state of animals. In the future, ToF sensors will surpass the 3D perception category and measure informations such as human physiological indicators and object’s speeds, and move toward 4D perception.”

         Since the establishment in January 2017, OPNOUS has embarked to layout in many aspects to prepare for the outbreak of 3D ToF sensor applications.Mr. Bill Liu gave a detailed introduction to OPNOUS’s achievements in infrastructure, patents, product and module development, and algorithm development:
(1) OPNOUS has invested a lot of resources to establish and improve the laboratory and development evaluation center. Two full-system laboratories have been built, and a measurement center with thousands of square meters will be built soon.
(2) Build intelligent 3D sensing system comprehensively from sensor, data processing, illumination control and sensor fusion;
(3) Applying patents on a larger scale, and the number of patents applied for has exceeded 70, the future goal is to double year by year;
(4) In terms of hardware and software products, OPNOUS has comprehensively deployed sensors, ICs and algorithms, and has developed series of 850nm and 940nm ToF sensor chip with resolutions of 100 x 10, 100 x 100, 240 x 100, 240 x 200, 320 x 240, etc. , and will release VGA and megapixel products, while also developing intelligent 3D control chip and smart light emitting chip;
(5) The intelligent 3D control chip integrates basic depth processing and multiple dynamic sensing algorithms, and has high-level algorithms such as adaptive learning artificial intelligence architecture; intelligent light-emitting chips include high-efficiency illumination driving, illumination control and illumination protection, and control system that combines the ToF sensor and the control chip.

        Finally, Mr. Bill Liu said that “along with of the demand for ToF sensors in the market, the requirements of customers for ToF sensors will also be diversified. OPNOUS believes that ToF sensors will transform from 3D perception to 4D perception. OPNOUS is willing to cooperate with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain to jointly promote the development of ToF sensing technology!"