Owl AI Launches New Monocular 3D Thermal Ranging for Safe Autonomous Operation

This year’s well-anticipated Consumer Electronics Show, CES 2023, runs from Thursday, January 5 through Sunday, January 8, and already news is pouring in as new products are launched and new partnerships are made known. To that point, Owl Autonomous Imaging has announced the availability of an Evaluation Kit for their new 3D Thermal Ranger ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) and Autonomous Navigation Development Platform.

Super vital for the safety of drivers and pedestrians alike, this patented solution from Owl delivers panoramic thermal imaging and dense range maps superior to HDR RGB cameras and even RADAR and LiDAR sensors (particularly in difficult weather such as dense fog or heavy rain). These high-precision, quick-to-identify features make this a see-in-the-dark imaging solution to benefit the reach of ADAS, and an innovation that challenges conventional wisdom about traditional sensor suites.

“Thermal sensing,” said Chuck Gershman, Owl’s CEO, “is an important camera modality which can see in complete darkness as well as blinding light.”

The kit enables Tier 1 and OEM automotive companies to evaluate this imaging for use in Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking (PAEB) and other ADAS applications that support L2, L2+ and L3/L4 requirements.

Owl’s monocular thermal camera enables 3D segmentation of objects, both 2D and 3D perception for object classification, highly accurate distance measurements and much more. “And unlike other cumbersome approaches,” Gershman detailed, “a single OWL AI 3D thermal camera delivers distance information throughout the entire field of view and is immune to vehicle vibration for robust mapping.”

The long story short? Owl’s 3D Thermal Ranger technology operates day and night, in unsavory weather conditions, and “definitively classifies pedestrians, cyclists, animals and vehicles, all the while calculating position and direction to enable safe autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle operation.”