SEPTEMBER 26--According to Canesta (Sunnyvale, CA, USA; www.canesta.com), a leader in electronic-perception technology, Honda Motor Co. has made multiple investments in the company over the past three years, for more than $5 million in total, to assist it in development of new automotive-safety applications based upon its breakthrough technology. According to Toshinori Arita, head of Honda
Strategic Venturing, a corporate venture arm of Honda Motor Co., Canesta's sensors, which can be concealed in the bodywork, trim, or cockpit of consumer vehicles, may provide an attractive alternative to other techniques being researched, such as ultrasonics, lidar, or stereoscopic imaging, for a variety of systems such as occupant sensing, parking assistance, pedestrian detection, and collision avoidance. "It provides a comparatively low-cost, chip-based 3-D camera that could serve multiple applications from a single installation," says Arita.
Canesta's sensors act like camera chips, but instead of seeing their surroundings in terms of light and darkness and a palette of colors, the devices continuously sense the distance to nearby objects--in any ambient light condition--and provide a stream of 3-D image data that can be further interpreted by the vehicle. Having true 3-D image information can simplify certain types of applications where the vehicle needs to understand what's going on around it and the systems needed to support these applications. By allowing a car to "see," in effect, can add a "sensing bubble" around the vehicle that can significantly enhance safety.
Canesta's electronic perception technology has been in development for more than six years and is covered by more than 17 patents. The company was recently honored as the recipient of the 2006 Automotive Vision System Technology Innovation of the Year Award.
