Heptagon Announces 5m ToF Range Sensor

BusinessWire: Heptagon announces ELISA 3DRanger, calling it the world’s first 5m ToF 3DRanger Smart Sensor. ELISA increases the previous maximum range of 2m by over 2x, more than doubling the sensor’s ability to measure distances under certain conditions. When integrated with a smartphone camera, ELISA enables applications like a virtual measuring tape, security features, people counting, augmented reality, and enhanced gaming. The range extension also improves auto-focus applications. Other new features include SmudgeSense, the company’s proprietary active smudge detection and resilience technology, and a 2-in-1 Proximity Mode.

The 5m distance range was achieved in normal office lighting conditions using high accuracy mode with the target object covering the full 29deg FOV. In Proximity Mode, distances between 10mm and 80mm are measured and the sensor provides a flag when a user-defined threshold is reached.

ELISA SmudgeSense uses patented ToF smudge pixels to detect high levels of smudge in real time, and alert the user about a problem through software. Additional proprietary algorithms are employed to dynamically increase smudge resilience using the data provided by the smudge pixels. This leads to optimized system performance, not only during manufacturing test, but in real life.

Mass production of the new 3DRanger begins in December 2016.