At this year’s Augmented World Expo (AWE), held in Santa Clara, California last month, Orbbec, a manufacturer of 3D visual technology, introduced their new UniXR Depth software solution. The new offering from the Michigan-based company allows for the creation of mixed reality (XR) content by “seamlessly integrating 3D content into various devices, eliminating the need for additional processing,” per the company’s release of the news.
With this new product, Orbbec is addressing the growing demand for high-quality content in the XR industry – encompassing both virtual and augmented reality – and is looking to make that content creation a more seamless and efficient process. The new UniXR Depth solution converts RGB-D data streams from any depth camera into XR-ready stereoscopic image pairs, working on multiple different platforms including PCs, FPGAs, ASICs, embedded edge computing systems, and cloud computing servers.
The goal, clearly, is to make this technology usable for any potential customers with the compatibility with all of the different platforms and the elimination of extra processing necessary on other platforms. Furthermore, Orbbec indicates on their website that they can customize the solution in order to tailor to specific customers’ needs.
In addition to this kind of software, Orbbec has also been busy over the last couple of years in developing different kinds of cameras to provide 3D perception cameras. At the start of this year, making the announcement of two new cameras. One, the Gemini 2, is a stereo vision camera with a wide field of view, ideal for navigation and robotics, among other use cases. The other, the Astra 2, is a structured light camera, which computes a 3D image of the environment in real time and can be used for security, among other use cases. Last year, they introduced a new line of Time-of-Flight cameras as well, a product line which was developed in collaboration with Microsoft.
With this latest offering, Orbbec is taking advantage of the growing demand for mixed reality content, which can cover a number of different use cases. Unsurprisingly, in their release of the news much of the focus in terms of use cases revolves around entertainment and gaming, which remains a big focus of the XR community and was indeed a focus of this week’s Apple presentation of their new Vision Pro headset. That said, Orbbec does also mention the potential of their tool in assisting more enterprise use cases, including navigation and inspection. As noted on the company’s website, UniXR Depth can be used to gain real-time 3D environmental views for things like post-disaster scenarios or complex structures to allow for safer and efficient inspections and rescue missions.
On the new release, Orbbec CTO and co-founder David Chen said in a press statement, “"Our new technology unlocks endless possibilities across industries. We have always aimed to push the boundaries of VR/AR/MR, and by simplifying the process and making it more accessible, we strive to foster innovation and drive the industry forward."
