Many of the currently unmanned cars that have been tested on the road have been equipped with basic environmental awareness and emergency avoidance functions. But for some potentially invisible threats, it is not yet well avoided. The good news is that a Stanford research team A new laser-based system is being developed. It is designed to allow the driverless car to 'see' the blind spots around the corner and respond before children or other vehicles suddenly pop out. Because they cannot see through directly, they use laser pulses. To aim at blind spots in the corner.
Researchers David Lindell and Matt O'Toole conduct systematic tests
It is reported that a high-sensitivity sensor can capture the returned light information and perform algorithm analysis to derive a 'blurred snapshot hidden outside the line of sight'. Although it sounds 'high-tech', this is not the first time scientists have successfully displayed this ' Specific function'.
As early as 2012, an MIT team conducted a similar system experiment. In 2014, European and Canadian researchers were able to reproduce the 'optical echo' of hidden objects.
However, Stanford scientists pointed out that their progress is mainly reflected in mathematics. Since light can be scattered by objects, it can return to the sensor from almost all directions, resulting in a large number of 'noise'.
To this end, the Stanford team developed an advanced algorithm that can calculate the captured photon path, and then use it to reproduce the object. Co-author David Lindell said:
One of the major challenges of non-line-of-sight imaging is to find an effective way to reconstruct the 3D structure of hidden objects in measuring noise. I think the biggest impact of this approach is its computational efficiency.
According to the researchers, their algorithm can complete the analysis of photon data in less than a second, which is so efficient that it can run directly on ordinary laptops. The practical obstacle to sweeping is on the initial scan:
In order to generate sufficient data for a hidden object, the system needs to emit many laser pulses in one process, but it takes less than an hour to become unnecessary.
Another problem is ambient light. Under carefully controlled laboratory conditions, the system works without problems. But to bring it under the bright sun, the sensor may be a bit overwhelmed.
The good news is that in outdoor testing, the researchers found that this technology can clearly capture highly reflective objects such as bright clothing colors, street signs and markers.
In the future, researchers hope to be able to further improve their scanning speed, work in sunlight, and even detect moving objects.
