Melexis, a global microelectronics engineering company, will have exclusive use of Chronoptics’ multipath and linearity error correction technologies for automotive applications. This includes ADAS for autonomous vehicles, and interior monitoring and safety systems. The companies will also work together to further improve and deploy the technology in the automotive market.

Multipath interference in Time-of-Flight cameras can, in some use cases, lead to inaccurate depth measurements under specific conditions, such as when a wide Field-of-View (FoV) is used, or when the scene contains highly reflective objects. It is typically caused by stray light and scattering due to bright reflections in the scene. Chronoptics’ patented multipath correction technology recovers the correct depth values to produce accurate and robust point clouds even in the most challenging scenarios. With future vehicle applications set to demand an even wider FoV, the technology enables Melexis’ customers to address and mitigate potential challenges in advance.

Richard Conroy, CEO, Chronoptics, said: “We are excited to partner with Melexis to deliver robust depth sensing solutions for the automotive industry. We are experts in tailoring fit-for-purpose 3D cameras that leverage our patented depth pipeline technologies and know-how to deliver clean and accurate 3D data for any application.”

https://www.melexis.com/en/news/2021/4mar2021-melexis-announces-an-exclusive-license-agreement-with-chronoptics

WaikatoLink is proud to be an investor in Chronoptics.

WaikatoLink is working with University of Waikato AI experts and parking management company Parkable to revolutionise the car parking experience.

Researchers from the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences are developing the new technology that could radically improve the experience of finding a car park, with the help of machine learning algorithms which monitor the car parks in a smarter way, identifying available parks from video images.

“We are prototyping a car monitoring system that uses a small, cheap camera, with a small micro-computer plugged directly into it,” explains WaikatoLink General Manager of Commercialisation, Matt McMahon, who is working with the researchers and Parkable on this collaborative project.

“The system uses machine learning models to identify cars and empty car parks so that the Parkable service can direct parkers to available parks in real time, and car park owners or administrators can monitor occupancy.”

The goal is to have a better parking experience for everyone.

Improving the car parking experience

Toby Littin, CEO of Parkable, says the current parking model is broken, characterised by monopolies, punitive infringing, and frustrating processes.

“I think there’s a really exciting future for parking. Innovative technology is the way to move toward a world where we utilise our space better and create more seamless, positive parking experiences.”

This year Parkable launched Licence Plate Recognition technology and added EV charging functionality to the platform.

Mr Littin says this venture with WaikatoLink is the next stage in bringing new, human-centred innovations to parking.

Using a mobile app to manage the car parking experience

Parkable is a mobile app which allows people, businesses, and property owners to rent out their underused parking space. Drivers use the app to find available car parks, book them in advance, and pay for parking.

Parkable also offers car park management software to enterprises that want to make better use of their parking space, through simple booking and sharing of car parks.

This new technology solution is aimed at small and medium municipal and private car park owners, with the potential to dramatically change the price point for car park management, which in New Zealand is largely controlled by big car parking management businesses.

Instead of existing in-ground technology using sensors, the new system will process video data in real-time, monitor multiple parking bays at once, and run on several cheap computers, removing the need for high bandwidth, expensive servers and cloud processing.