Vayyar has launched a sensor that focuses on new uses for its 3D imaging technology. The sensor can be used for a variety of situations, such as detecting whether someone in your home has stopped breathing or is suffering from sleep apnea, as well as other interesting applications for a technology that can see through walls, like Superman’s X-ray vision.
Israel-based Vayyar first showed up with the technology at CES 2016, and the company initially launched a tool for homebuilders to detect pipes and studs in walls. Vayyar is now shipping the device that it talked about at the most recent CES 2018 event.
The company uses 3D imaging with radio waves to see through solid surfaces, including materials, objects, and liquids. It can show a 3D model of a cancerous growth in a woman’s breast or monitor a heartbeat, such as that of a baby sleeping in another room.
Vayyar can also detect motion and track multiple people in large areas. It works by shooting a radio wave into a solid object and measuring all the ways the wave bounces around as it hits various objects. Vayyar collects the reflections and analyzes them, putting them back together as a 3D image in real time.
The new version of Vayyar’s sensor has multiple applications in the connected home. It can peer through the walls of a home or apartment in all light conditions, while maintaining privacy. This allows it to compete with cameras — which don’t offer such privacy — for home monitoring.
Vayyar said it has a new system-on-a-chip for millimeter wave 3D imaging. The new Vayyar chip covers imaging and radar bands from 3GHz-81GHz with 72 transmitters and 72 receivers in one chip. It also has an integrated digital signal processor with large internal memory.
Above: If you put Vayyar sensors in a car, you can detect the environment more easily.
Vayyar’s sensor does not need any external CPU to execute complex imaging algorithms. It supports very high bandwidth, which produces unprecedented levels of accuracy and a high-resolution images. Vayyar’s sensor differentiates between objects and people, determines location while mapping large areas, and creates a 3D image of the environment. The sensor can simultaneously detect and classify a variety of targets in real time.
By using wideband radio waves, the sensor can penetrate different types of materials and operates in every weather or lighting condition, making it applicable for the automotive and industrial markets.
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“Radio wave imaging is a powerful technology, which was dormant for decades. Vayyar’s new sensor is finally unleashing its potential,” said Vayyar CEO Raviv Melamed, in a statement.
The first generation of Vayyar’s powerful sensors has already been used by several Fortune 500 companies around the world, including through a priority partnership with Softbank in Japan.
“Together with the chip, we provide our customers with a full suite of software and advanced algorithms to expedite their ability to develop products based on our technology,” Melamed said. “This has created a synergy that is propelling an accelerated path to market for a wide range of products that can help people to better care for their elders, detect cancer at an early stage, make our homes more secure without compromising privacy, and improve car safety in every weather condition.”
The technology is currently being used in multiple applications across a wide range of sectors, including construction, elderly care, breast cancer imaging, automotive, smart homes, retail, robotics, and more.
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