Prophesee Expands Event Driven Concept to LiDARs

EETimes publishes an article on event-driven image sensors such as Prophesee's (former Chronocam) Asynchronous Time-Based Image Sensor (ATIS) chip.

The company CEO Luca Verre "disclosed to us that Prophesee is exploring the possibility that its event-driven approach can apply to other sensors such as lidars and radars. Verre asked: “What if we can steer lidars to capture data focused on only what’s relevant and just the region of interest?” If it can be done, it will not only speed up data acquisition but also reduce the data volume that needs processing.

Phrophesee is currently “evaluating” the idea, said Luca, cautioning that it will take “some months” before the company can reach that conclusion. But he added, “We’re quite confident that we can pull it off.”

Asked about Prophesee’s new idea — to extend the event-driven approach to other sensors — Yole Développement’s analyst Cambou told us, “Merging the advantages of an event-based camera with a lidar (which offers the “Z” information) is extremely interesting.”

Noting that problems with traditional lidars are tied to limited resolution — “relatively less than typical high-end industrial cameras” — and the speed of analysis, Cambou said that the event-driven approach can help improve lidars, “especially for fast and close-by events, such as a pedestrian appearing in front of an autonomous car.”