Ambarella, Lumentum, ON Semiconductor partner on AI-based 3D sensing

28 May 2021

For new approaches to biometric access control, 3D locks, and intelligent sensing.

Ambarella, an AI vision silicon company, Lumentum, a developer of photonic products, and ON Semiconductor, a provider of CMOS image sensor solutions, have announced two new “joint reference designs” that accelerate AIoT device deployment across verticals, building on the companies’ collaborations.

By combining the data from Lumentum’s VCSEL array illuminators and an ON Semiconductor image sensor using Ambarella’s AI system on chip (SoC), the partnsers say that higher levels of accuracy and more intelligent decision-making can be achieved in next-generation AIoT devices for biometric access control, 3D electronic locks and other intelligent sensing applications.

“Ambarella’s vision is to combine AI processing with 3D and vision sensing to create an ambient intelligent future,” commented Fermi Wang, President and CEO of Ambarella.

“This collaboration with Lumentum and ON Semiconductor will further advance the convergence of AI and IoT to enable a new generation of access control systems, while inspiring novel categories of ambient sensing products—all powered by the fusion of sensors using AI vision processors that interact intelligently and unobtrusively with people to address their ever-evolving needs.”

‘increased accuracy’

Téa Williams, Lumentum’s Senior VP and General Manager, 3D Sensing, added, “Our new joint solutions will greatly increase the accuracy of AIoT devices across application verticals—starting with biometric access control and electronic locks—enabling them to recognize people and predict their needs, rather than requiring a direct human interface.”

“Many of these applications will take advantage of 3D sensing to inject a new dimension of data input for improved decision-making. As an example, using higher resolution VCSEL-based spot illumination enables longer sensing ranges and higher-accuracy facial recognition. Lumentum’s industry-leading and high-performance VCSEL arrays with zero field failures, used across these joint solutions, are driving new applications and helping realize the dream of AIoT devices with 3D sensing capabilities.”

And Gianluca Colli, VP and General Manager, Industrial and Consumer Sensor Division (ICSD) group at ON Semiconductor, added, “Image sensors are the eyes for intelligent sensing devices. Their ability to see farther with more detail provides significantly more information for the AI processor’s decision-making in AIoT devices,” said Gianluca Colli, Vice President and General Manager, Industrial and Consumer Sensor Division (ICSD) group at ON Semiconductor.

“Our industry leading RGB-IR sensor technology, combined with the advanced ISP capabilities of Ambarella’s AI vision SoCs, can bring both visible and IR images into devices simultaneously. For this second generation of our joint solutions, we leveraged customer feedback to quadruple the resolution of our RGB-IR image sensors to 4K (8MP).”

The three companies’ new joint AIoT solutions consist of two reference designs and additional 3D sensing development kits, each configured to address application-specific demands for the combination of AI processing, 3D depth sensing and vision sensing.