Sufaro on the Scene at CES2023

Technologies can bring scenes to life in more detail than ever imagined

At CES2023, smart cities and smart buildings-focused exhibitors incorporated safety benefits from sensor fusion providers. Here’s a closer look:

Owl AI: 3D Thermal Imaging Brings Scenes to Life  

The 3D HD imaging and precision ranging by Owl AI’s high-resolution thermal imager reminds me of Neo's awesome power of three-dimensional digital constructs of people that “pop out” of the Matrix-scape. Even the company logo fuses Owl’s artificial intelligence with autonomous imaging.

“The most determinant variable in the autonomous market will always be safety,” Owl AI CEO Chuck Gershman told me. “Manufacturers will continuously be tasked with determining which technology solutions most effectively mitigate liability risks and cost for safe operation.”

In the past year, we have covered sensor fusion’s role in collecting visual data, or “seeing” better as humans. With sensor fusion, computer vision algorithms are run on sensor data, including from LEDs, thermal imagers, radar, LiDAR, 3D ToF (Time of Flight) cameras and more. The combined, real-time visual intelligence is sensor fusion, and it improves our ability to react and investigate in many use-cases.

For example, Tesla Vision currently uses visible light and machine learning. Will this be augmented by LiDAR, radar or even HD thermal imaging for sensor fusion? Although Tesla's plans were not finalized at CES 2023, they will encourage other industries to take advantage of economies of “sensor fusion” scale, while investors watch what Elon Musk plans to do about other initiatives.

At CES2023, smart cities and smart buildings-focused exhibitors incorporated safety benefits from sensor fusion providers. Here’s a closer look:

Owl AI: 3D Thermal Imaging Brings Scenes to Life  

The 3D HD imaging and precision ranging by Owl AI’s high-resolution thermal imager reminds me of Neo's awesome power of three-dimensional digital constructs of people that “pop out” of the Matrix-scape. Even the company logo fuses Owl’s artificial intelligence with autonomous imaging.

“The most determinant variable in the autonomous market will always be safety,” Owl AI CEO Chuck Gershman told me. “Manufacturers will continuously be tasked with determining which technology solutions most effectively mitigate liability risks and cost for safe operation.”

Photo: Steve Surfaro

Owl AI’s 3D Thermal Ranger is technically a 3D monocular thermal imaging solution that provides HD imaging of “life in motion” pedestrians, people, pets, bicyclists, and the entire V2X vehicle ecosystem. It is a 150x resolution improvement and cloud density of current LiDAR sensors.

Day/night, all-weather object classification means calculating position, direction and speed to unlock safe autonomous and semi-autonomous operation. Owl AI’s panoramic thermal imaging solution produces dense range maps superior to current LiDAR or radar technology, at similar integrated cost, and is immune to vehicle vibration. This technology will enhance and revolutionize sensor fusion in city overwatch, perimeter protection, campus safety and border protection.

Watch or visualize a traffic intersection and imagine the spatial neural network required to track cars, bicycles, handicapped people and runners. This 3D scene of living and mechanical objects in motion brings to mind a FlightAware-type display of aircraft vectors pointing in different directions and moving at changing velocity and acceleration. This is why their imaging chipset is joined by a powerful processor like the NVIDIA Jetson.

Back in 2017, I worked with Jack Hanagriff, who at the time was Critical Infrastructure Protection Coordinator for the Houston Urban Area Security Initiative, to deploy standard resolution thermal IP cameras as “overwatch” with visible light PTZ cameras at a Super Bowl-related event in the city. This aided first responders to locate medical emergencies in a crowd at the co-located concert event. The use of an imaging device with the 3D Thermal Ranger would have vastly improved operational response. www.owlai.us