Microvision in the news

 

MicroVision, Inc. Announces Progress on its Automotive Long Range Lidar A-Sample

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REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MicroVision, Inc. (NASDAQ: MVIS), a leader in MEMS based laser beam sensing technology, today announced that it has received necessary components and equipment to meet its April milestone of completing A-Samples of its Long Range Lidar Sensor. The Company also announced that it has started outdoor testing of key performance features on its development platform.

“We expect MicroVision’s Long Range Lidar Sensor, (LRL Sensor) which has been in development for over two years, to meet or exceed requirements established by OEMs for autonomous safety and autonomous driving features,” said Sumit Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of MicroVision.

“We expect our 1^st generation LRL Sensor to have range of at least 250 meters and the highest resolution at range of any lidar with 340 vertical lines up to 250 meters, 568 vertical lines up to 120 meters and 944 vertical lines up to 60 meters. This equates to 520 points per square degree. Our LRL Sensor will also output velocity of moving objects relative to an ego vehicle across our dynamic field of view in real-time 30 Hz sensor output. This sensor would accelerate development of Level 3 (L3) autonomous safety and Level 4 (L4) autonomous driving features that are important to potential customers and interested parties.”

“I am proud of the intense dedication of our team and the strong support from our global suppliers as we remain on track to have A-Samples ready in April. We believe our LRL Sensor offers two sustainable strategic advantages to potential customers and parties interested in strategic alternatives. We expect the capability of our LRL Sensor to meet or exceed OEM requirements, based on technology we have scaled multiple times over the last decade, as being a very strong strategic advantage. Additionally, our sensor being designed on scalable silicon wafer and laser diode technologies will be capable of achieving scale at costs below $1,000 ASP, a key price point expected for commercial success,” added Sharma.

Things getting interesting...

I have zero idea how much weight to give anything like this. Maybe a lot, maybe none. But I'm sure there is considerable interest in the technology this little company has created.



Hat-tip to "Qlfang"

Reddit Reference

Google Translate Link

Microsoft acquires laser sensing company MicroVision to deepen vehicle technology layout

05-18 15:10 Source: Gasgoo 0 comments

　　According to foreign media reports, Microsoft Recently announced the acquisition of laser sensing and projection technology company MicroVision, which has a large number of patents related to laser beam scanning projection and sensing.
　　Previously, Microsoft had worked with the company to use the MicroVision MEMS engine in HoloLens 2 devices. The acquisition Microsoft may be concerned MicroVision broader knowledge property . Currently, MicroVision is cooperating with some important automobile manufacturers to provide laser sensor solutions for autonomous vehicle technology.
　　MicroVision has developed laser scanning technology for projection, 3D sensing, and image capture. Its display technology uses micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) scanning mirrors and lasers, photons, and electrons to project or capture images. The company's products are mainly licensed to OEMs , such as SonyAnd STMicroelectronics. MicroVision has also developed PicoP scanning technology, which is an ultra-miniature sensing and projection solution based on the company's laser beam scanning method. MicroVision's platform approach means that its technology can be widely used.
　　All along, Microsoft has been looking for ways to enter the automotive technology market . In September 2019, Microsoft announced the Connected Car Platform (MCVP). The platform is said to be an evolving system that auto companies can use to implement multiple services in their vehicles , including in-car experience, autonomous driving, advanced navigation, user interaction and insight, telematics and prediction services, and Connect and OTA.
　　In the 2019 MCVP white paper , Microsoft shared its connected car vision, "MCVP provides a consistent technical infrastructure and integrates vehicle configuration and solutions into a common data source through secure and scalable data ingestion. the platform, automotive manufacturers and partners can use the vehicle telemetry , create customized, innovative, for the consumer 's appreciation of the vehicle and cloud services, including telemetry, navigation, goods and services , etc. in addition, MCVP not only for the ride Used cars can also be applied to commercial and industrial vehicles, including cars, trucks, cranes, ships and drones. "
　　It is worth noting that MCVP is not an operating system , but the foundation of the platform created by OEM partners, providing partners with a complete cloud-based backend. However, MCVP will allow Microsoft to seamlessly integrate services such as Skype, Office 365 and Dynamics into in-vehicle systems. At present, the platform has been adopted by TomTom, LG, Volkswagen and other companies.
(Original title: Microsoft acquires laser sensor company MicroVision to deepen vehicle technology layout)

Autonomous Cars

Also seems to confirm my theory that tailgating is bad.

Autonomous car prevents traffic Jam

The Bicycle Problem

A great reason to have a medium range high-definition 3D Lidar.

Volvo

SpectrumIEEE
Robotic cars are great at monitoring other cars, and they’re getting better at noticing pedestrians, squirrels, and birds. The main challenge, though, is posed by the lightest, quietest, swerviest vehicles on the road.

“Bicycles are probably the most difficult detection problem that autonomous vehicle systems face,” says UC Berkeley research engineer Steven Shladover.

Nuno Vasconcelos, a visual computing expert at the University of California, San Diego, says bikes pose a complex detection problem because they are relatively small, fast and heterogenous. “A car is basically a big block of stuff. A bicycle has much less mass and also there can be more variation in appearance — there are more shapes and colors and people hang stuff on them.”

*****

Further strides, meanwhile, are coming via high-definition maps such as Israel-based Mobileye’s Road Experience Management system. These maps offer computer vision algorithms a head start in identifying bikes, which stand out as anomalies from pre-recorded street views. Ford Motor says “highly detailed 3D maps” are at the core of the 70 self-driving test cars that it plans to have driving on roads this year.

Put all of these elements together, and one can observe some pretty impressive results, such as the bike spotting demonstrated last year by Google’s vehicles. Waymo, Google’s autonomous vehicle spinoff, unveiled proprietary sensor technology with further upgraded bike-recognition capabilities at this month’s Detroit Auto Show.

*****

Volvo began offering the first cyclist-aware AEB in 2013, crunching camera and radar data to predict potential collisions; it is rolling out similar tech for European buses this year. More automakers are expected to follow suit as European auto safety regulators begin scoring AEB systems for cyclist detection next year.

Goldman's view of the future.

A little bit of a view of the future from Goldman Sachs

Interesting how a little company called Microvision fits into big parts of what they're about.

NVIDIA Self Driving Car at CES

There isn't a great big Lidar on this one.  There are a lot of players in the field. I suspect they will likely use more than one type of sensor at a time (multiple makes of Lidar, or other camera until reliability issues are worked out, or on a continuing basis as a backup.) 

Also an interesting reveal on what the computer is "seeing."

AutoWorldNews

Waymo Manufacturing Partner?

Answers and poses the big questions:

Who would be the manufacturing partner? STM does a lot of automotive work. 

Magna Electronics as well, and they know Microvision. 


They're also talking about selling it to other companies.
Bloomberg


Forbes -- more at the source

Waymo this week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit revealed that the latest generation of its hardware and software is being used on Chrysler Pacifica minivans that begin road tests this month. A total of 100 of the vans are getting radar, sensors, cameras and laser Lidar units for 360-degree, high-definition images of a vehicle's surroundings, all made by Waymo.

Having the company’s hardware engineers and software developers work together on the entire system has brought “design-driven” component cost reduction, Krafcik said. Further savings will come from high-volume production.

“We’ve scaled now so that we’re moving from units of tens to units of hundreds,” he said. “Think about the radars – we have six in the cars. We’re building 100 Pacificas now, so that’s 600 individual radar units. That’s quite a bit.”

“As you increase in an order of magnitude from tens to hundreds you’ll find cost reduction, but now we’re getting ready to scale to thousands and tens of thousands and we’re going to find there additional manufacturing cost down efficiencies,” he said. “We’ll also probably find it makes sense to work with a partner to help us manufacture these things.”

Microvision Featured in EEJournal -- LIDAR

More and more is coming out about this. The price improvements claimed by Google are very interesting -- replacing a $75,000 unit by Velodyne with something costing a few hundred dollars.... 

EEJournal

Most recently, lidar has been embodied in slightly gawky units atop cars that just scream, “Something is different about this vehicle!” Using rotating mirrors, a beam can be steered 360° around the vehicle and up and down (to some extent) to map out everything that’s within range. But there’s some thought that, if we’re serious about letting the neighbors see us inside one of those, we need to improve the aesthetics.

This came up in a presentation by MicroVision at last fall’s MEMS Executive Congress. They have a MEMS mirror setup that we saw a couple of years ago as used in their pico-projector application. They use the same basic setup for heads-up displays and for lidar (which uses one extra ASIC); they adapt to the application by changing out the laser diodes and software.

Rather than rotating 360°, their MEMS mirror waves back and forth in a sinusoidal scan, controlled by a 27-Hz resonator; individual pixels are defined by turning the laser diode on and off. The faster the scan, the faster you can get an overview of what’s nearby. By slowing the scan, you get more detail. It sounds simple in principle, but they say that they have to battle jitter in the mirror and temperature effects on the laser. Control and compensation are the tough parts.

Check this out at TheVerge

Mid Range LIDAR

Screenless displays, interactive projection, near eye displays and LiDAR are major growing areas in electronics. (Microvision's tech is useful in all of these areas.)

Much of the talk recently in tech is about self-driving cars, and what they need are really good sensors to look around.

I heard a conversation yesterday about just how good that is and did a little checking up. The story I hears was about how the car is taking pictures of everything all the time -- lots and lots of sensing going on -- and when the car detected in front of it a car that was slowing, and a following car that couldn't possibly stop in time -- warned the driver about the accident BEFORE it happened.

There's video of this happening.

A lot of old-timers who are used to having their hands on the wheel ( and being surrounded by lesser drivers ) have some hesitance about accepting assistance from a machine.

Will this all be perfect? No. Will it need better sensors to get there? Yes. The Mems LIDAR will be very useful for this, and is driving down prices.

Microvision is in LIDAR with STM, which is a tremendous partner. 

Ford is working with Velodyne, and Velodyne is mentioning Microvision in at least one LiDAR patent  -- the current Velodyne laser scanner is large and expensive.

CNET - LIDAR and self-driving cars.

Mercury News -- more at source


More Background - ABC Australia

Smart Store Shelves -- Amazon & Others

For both the display and the laser scanning, Microvision can be all over this.


Yahoo News  --- More at the source

SMART SHELVES

Web retailers have plenty of data on their customers. Some of these online technologies can even track shoppers from site to site to lure them back with what's known as retargeting ads — promos targeted to what that shopper has looked at before, but didn't actually buy. Smart shelves with sensors promise the same kind of in-depth consumer behavior analytics at retail stores.

At a Kroger store in Cold Spring, Ohio, shelves currently show digitized price tags and information about the products. The next step is to tie that to individual shoppers. For example, for a shopper who prefers gluten-free products, the price tags could light up in the aisle where all the gluten-free options are. The company says this will all be done with the customer's permission.

Perch Interactive, a startup that is working with chains like Sunglass Hut and fragrance maker Jo Malone, uses laser and motion sensors to detect when a product is picked up. Perch monitors the interactions and lets retailers know what people pick up but don't buy. It also offers recommendations: When a shopper picks up a Jo Malone product, an interactive display pops up to show a complementary fragrance.

CES: Cost Effective LIDAR Sensing Might Steal the Show

LIDAR is a very interesting field, and I'm expecting it to advance very quickly. Like AR, there is a lot of demand for it. 

We know MVIS is there.

Thanks Fuzzie

LinkedIn -- More at the source

• Quite a few concept cars are expected to be showcased which will feature the convergence of electrification, automated driving, health wellness, interior of the features, vehicle to home connectivity including Honda (NeuV), Mercedes Benz Concept EQ, Rinspeed Oasis and so on.

Cost Effective Solid-State LIDAR for Automated Driving 

Solid-state LIDAR is going to be talked about for the second year in a row at CES with the only difference being a new set of players in the field. In addition to usual suspects like Velodyne and Quanergy this time around LeddarTech, startups like Blackmore Sensor and Analytics and tier 1 suppliers like Continental are expected to make the noise around LIDAR. Some of the interesting themes to be showcased are

• Velodyne’s low cost solid-state LIDAR and sensing model. This coming from the most trusted LIDAR player currently could be a game changer for volume automakers. 
• New solid-state 2D and 3D LIDARs with ranges of 200-300m will be unveiled by LeddarTech still chasing an aggressive price point of close to $100. With improved range, FOV and an ecosystem of partners and demonstrations on OEM vehicles like FCA, this Quebec-based company is fast scaling up the ranks. 
• Collaborating with LeddarTech will be TriLumina, a spin-out from Sandia National Laboratories who will showcase a 256-Pixel 3D solid state LIDAR. The two companies are also expected to showcase its partnership efforts utilizing LeddarTech’s LeddarCore IC’s and TriLumina’s laser illumination model. 
• Suppliers like Osram are expected to showcase its low cost solid-state LIDAR for under $100. Suppliers like Pioneer are expected to unveil more details around their LIDAR and sensing plans. 
• Startups like Blackmore Sensor and Analytics who recently closed their Series A funding of $3.5 million will showcase a new line up of frequency-modulated continuous-wave LIDAR that functions more like a Radar system. 
• Tier 1 suppliers like Continental are also expected to showcase its 3D flash LIDAR that are expected to support ADAS to level 4/5 automated driving functions.

Virtual Reality is lonely, Augmented is... augmented

Thanks T!

With Augmented Reality, interacting with the world is going to be better. 

On a normal day I see half a dozen people I've seen and met before but can't remember a name, or where I've seen them before. Having a memory aid that can also recognize a face could be an astonishing social enhancement.

Not to mention that AR can help you do stuff, make things, remember, fix things and will enhance your abilities.

But when you put on a headset that replaces the world. That isolates you from everyone in it.




LA Times - Clipboard -- more at the source.


Turns out that the best “content” is other people. When people get together in online games they may fight dragons or shoot lasers — but they are being entertained primarily by the other players. Even single-player titles beg to be talked about with others, so chat rooms, blogs and podcasts pop up around them.

When tech companies suddenly have a big hit, it’s often because they got the social part right by accident. If we look at the most popular games of recent years — “World of Warcraft,” “League of Legends,” “Pokémon Go” — they are each a sparkly excuse for playing with and being around others. You can find better graphics and better stories in their genres, but they aren’t as much fun.

As a species, we’re still basically social monkeys. Without others, we grow bored, restless, frustrated and sad. There’s a reason that solitary confinement is such cruel punishment. So as new technologies emerge, the central question to ask is this: Does it help us enjoy one another, or get in the way? If you’re looking for a basic test of which technologies will go big or fall flat, that’s it.

MicroVision Begins Shipping Samples to Customers of Its Small Form Factor Display Engine

I hadn't been expecting this announcement for a while. 

I take this as an indication that the efforts for mass production are on schedule as well, and customers are gearing up for mass production.

This is less than half the volume of the SONY engine.

At 0.6 centimeter's thick, it's can fit comfortably into a smart phone.

It is very clear from the verbiage of this press release that there are customers lined up for Microvision's products.

MicroVision Begins Shipping Samples to Customers of Its Small Form Factor Display Engine

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 27, 2016-- MicroVision, Inc. (NASDAQ: MVIS), a leader in innovative ultra-miniature projection display and sensing technology, today announced that it has begun on-schedule customer shipments of samples of its new, small form factor display engine.

MicroVision announced in November that it plans to sell a display engine beginning in the second quarter of 2017. This small form factor display engine is based on the company’s proprietary PicoP® scanning technology, a laser beam scanning (LBS) approach for pico projection and 3D sensing. MicroVision plans to be ready for mass production of this engine early in the second quarter of 2017.

The small form factor display engine, model number PSE-0403-101, is a compact laser beam scanning engine measuring just 3.6 cm wide by 5.3 cm long by 0.6 cm thick with a volume of only 11.6 cubic centimeters. The sleek form factor and thinness of the engine make it an ideal choice for products such as smartphones, portable media players, tablets and other handheld electronics. A short focal length version of the engine, model number PSE-0403-102, is well suited for aftermarket head up display (HUD) applications and other applications with a fixed, short focal length.

The PSE-0403-101/2 display engine is an all-in-one unit combining an integrated photonics module (IPM) containing MEMS and lasers and an electronics platform module (EPM) containing MicroVision’s proprietary ASICS and system control software. Some customers prefer a flexible solution of the IPM and standalone MicroVision ASICS that they can combine with the electronics of the device into which the engine is embedded. The form factor of the IPM, which measures only 4.66 cubic centimeters, is a critical attribute for OEMS considering incorporating pico projectors inside their consumer products.

In addition to the PSE-0403-101/2 engines, MicroVision plans to offer two other scanning engines: an interactive display engine that can support simultaneous projected display and multi-touch interactivity with the projected images and a sensing engine for mid-range LiDAR. Samples of the interactive display engine are planned for the second quarter of 2017 with production engines expected in the third quarter of 2017. The company expects to begin shipping samples of the mid-range LiDAR engine in the second half of 2017 with production units planned for first half of 2018 availability.

MicroVision’s business model and product line offering includes display and sensing engines, licensing its patented technology and selling components to licensees for incorporation into their scanning engines.

Magic Leap -- Dots connecting well

Thanks Mike for your correction to my mix up.

We've been suspicious that Magic Leap was using a fiber scanning display, instead of Microvision's LBS. 

Magic leap is apparently abandoning the Fiber scanning display -- and their other option is -- 

Magic leap has been (apparently) overhyping their progress.

So, looks like we have what could be a very nice new customer. And given that we apparently have a ridiculously tiny new display engine.

Magic Leap is currently valued at about $4.5 Billion dollars. 

The biggest advantage of Microvision's 0.65 cubic centimeter projector is that it requires no lenses, but is in focus and appears normal on any surface, even those that are rough or radically curved.  EE-Times linked from this blog 


The Verge

The crux of the problem appears to be Magic Leap’s gamble on a so-called fiber scanning display, which shines a laser through a fiber optic cable that moves rapidly back and forth to draw images out of light. The company thought the fiber scanning display could be Magic Leap’s breakthrough tech, allowing it to shrink down the extremely expensive hardware used on a previous prototype — a refrigerator-sized device known internally as the “Beast.” 

According to The Information, Magic Leap still has not been able to get the fiber scanning display to work. It has since demoted it to a long-term research project. “You ultimately in engineering have to make tradeoffs,” Abovitz said in the interview. Still, the company’s latest prototype appears to be the size of a standard pair of glasses. It’s known internally as the PEQ, for product equivalent, and yet Magic Leap declined to demonstrate it for The Information. Abovitz claims it is only slightly less capable than the earlier, tethered prototypes, but denied that it now uses technology similar to the HoloLens.

The Hololens units that are out, were using the Himax display, but is changing.

"In the near-term, estimates lower component orders from a major buyer (Microsoft HoloLens). Analyst Tom Sepenzis: "AR – We believe that the primary customer is rapidly reducing orders for LCOS and WLO components. This could result in approximately $60 million in LCOS/WLO revenue in CY16, down from an expected $90+ million, and have a significant impact in CY17. Originally pegged at $270 million in potential revenue in CY17, we now expect this customer to drop off almost completely in the first half of CY17 as it looks to refine its AR products." -- Seeking Alpha HIMAX - Source (multiple sources for this.)

IB Times -- Magic Leap Videos Faked?

Self Driving Cars -- Sebastian Thrun

I was drawn to the article because of the person and the topic. 

If we accept this as true, people will adopt self-driving cars faster than we think. 

They're going to need 3D sensors... 

GovTech.com

Q: What technical barriers remain?

A: When a human driver makes a mistake, he or she learns but nobody else learns. When a self-driving car makes a mistake, all the other cars learn from it as well as the unborn cars, future cars. The rate of progress is much faster.

The point has been reached when self-driving cars are safer than human driving. Look at Google: There are 300,000 miles between critical interventions when a human driver has to take over. That’s longer than the typical mean times between accidents for human drivers. The technology is there. What’s missing are business models.

...many other smartphone OEMS....

I scraped this article to be sure I didn't lose it.

Take everything with a grain of salt.... There's some interesting stuff in here!



EE Times -- Check the source.
LAKE WALES, Fla. — The skyrocketing popularity of augmented reality (Potkemon Go) and virtual reality (Google VR) may be the boost microelecromechanical systems (MEMS) projectors into the mass market, according to Microvision (Redmond, Wash.) at the MEMS Executive Congress (Scottsdale, Ariz). Microvision aims to break into the mass original equipment manufacturing (OEM) market in cooperation with STMicroelectronics (Geneva). Microvision's always-in-focus laser projector is so tiny and cheap that any smartphone can afford to add it (to project Pokemen for everyone to see) and for inexpensive VR glasses that anyone can afford.

Sony, ahead of the curve for once, has already been licensing Microvision's laser-based projector for two years as have many other smartphone OEMs who are too competitive to allow their names to be mentioned. Microvision has also been making a name for itself in the micro-lidar (3-D imaging system using invisible infrared beams) market. The advantage of its 5-millimeter sized projector allows not just smartphones and head-mounted displays (HMDs), but also even the tiniest un-manned vehicle to navigate using it.

"We have been public since 1996 on NASDAC as MVIS, but we expect our $1.35 stock price to rise once our deal with STMicroelectronics lands us major OEMs worldwide," Director of Technical Marketing and Applications Development Jari Honkanen told EE Times.

Jari claimed that their agreement with STMicroelectronics was also landing them major deals in other areas besides consumer electronics. For instance, heads-up displays can be projected onto windshields using their laser projector, images can be directly written onto the retina for AR projected from the hinge of your normal glasses, warehouse robots can more accurately navigate, industrial robotics can more accurately see in 3-D at variable resolutions traded off for frame rate.

The biggest advantage of Microvision's 0.65 cubic centimeter projector is that it requires no lenses, but is in focus and appears normal on any surface, even those that are rough or radically curved.

For range-finding 3-D lidar, the smallness and cheapness of the unit allows eight to be deploy economically around a vehicle to more accurate navigation and collision avoidance systems that are superior to radar-based Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in use today, according to Honkanen.

— R. Colin Johnson, Advanced Technology Editor, EE Times

Single Mems mirror for safety

The word is getting out to engineers. This is good. It's not out to the general public yet, but this is more writing on the wall, more good publicity.

EDN Network (More at the source.)

At the MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress, Honkanen presented MicroVision’s automotive applications of their technology using HUD overlays to project critical information on the car windshield as part of the driving scene ahead so that the driver can observe the information without taking their eyes off the road 

Honkanen also presented how MicroVision’s Laser Beam Scanning technology equipped with near infrared (IR) lasers and IR photodetector can be utilized to develop MEMS based scanning LIDAR systems.

The advantage of MEMS based scanning LIDAR is high horizontal and vertical resolution and the ability to dynamically change the detection resolution and frame rate. The same scanning LIDAR can do both slower high resolution and faster lower resolution captures depending on the application or driving situation.

A Single, tiny, innovative Mems Scanning Mirror

The STMicroelectronics relationship with Microvision is getting some attention. 

Thanks Dave!

EDN Network -- Much more at the source

A single, tiny, innovative MEMS scanning mirror technology: Moving to improve automotive safety with HUD and ADAS

Industry moves to acquire LIDAR technology for ADAS


This is a hot topic in the industry and big players are positioning themselves to get a big piece of the pie.

Infineon has acquired LIDAR expertise in October with the recent Innoluce takeover.

Analog Devices has also just announced, on November 17, the acquisition of LBS Technology from Vescent Photonics for the purpose of enabling mainstream adoption of automotive LIDAR systems.

I expect more companies to make similar announcements soon as this market heats up.

The unique MicroVision MEMS scanning mirror construction and operation