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Better Radar for Driverless Cars and Video Games?

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I’ve written in this space on two interests of mine: driverless cars and video game consoles. Interest in the former is owed to a morbid fascination with how many accidents they will cause, while interest in the latter is owed to a fascination with buying all the types of toys I could never afford as a kid. It appears that a new technology could make both more interesting.

This new technology is a new 3D imaging system that relies on LIDAR (“light radar”), a 3D imaging technology that uses light to provide feedback about the world around it. It was created by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and it remotely senses objects as far as 30 feet away, or about 10 times farther than what is possible with current low-power laser systems.

In terms of driverless cars, it promises, if successful, to help spot objects that the car must avoid (come to think of it my neighbor, notorious for crashing his car into all sorts of objects, including my car, could use this technology. That, or some glasses).

In terms of video games, the technology could improve interactive games (such as a tennis game) that must use a sensor to determine if the player has swung the racket and hit the ball.

Current laser technology used in LIDAR imaging consumes a great deal of energy and is expensive. It’s also very bulky, a problem for driverless cars, as it requires the car to have a large 3D camera on its roof. For gaming systems, the current technology requires big, bulky boxes of equipment, and users must stand within a few feet of the system for it to function consistently. So, the new technology is a great leap ahead, though it’s still experimental at this stage.

It even has an application for smartphones. For example, researchers working on the technology say it could be used to answer your smartphone or silence its ringtone just by waving your hand, even if the device is across the room.


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