Jan 5 2016
Heptagon introduces TARO, a Time-of-Flight (ToF) 3DRanger™ Smart Camera for fast, 3D depth sensing applications up to several meters. TARO is an industry-first complete solution that combines a 3D ToF Camera, on-board algorithms and software, greatly simplifying development of standalone products or integration into existing customer systems.
TARO builds on Heptagon’s rich history of ToF leadership and innovation dating back to the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology - CSEM, the inventors of ToF imaging. TARO improves upon Heptagon’s successful SwissRanger line of industrial ToF cameras, with a match-box sized footprint, on-board image processing for fast, easy-to-use 3D depth information, and the ability to download new algorithms into the TARO hardware. This makes TARO a powerful and versatile platform for retail analytics. Applications like people counting, occupancy detection, and intruder detection can be run on the same TARO hardware by downloading different algorithm packages. For privacy sensitive applications, 3D ToF technology provides fast, accurate depth information without the use of higher resolution cameras needed by competing triangulation solutions.
“We’re excited to be highlighting and demonstrating our new TARO 3DRanger™ smart camera at CES 2016 in Las Vegas,” says Henrik Norgreen, General Manager of Emerging Products Business Unit of Heptagon. “We developed TARO to be flexible, so it can be used as a standalone solution or easily integrated into customer systems. TARO’s ability to process 3D depth information directly in the camera generates actionable information and can be used in many new applications. The versatility of the TARO hardware and software make it a complete and ideal solution for integrating advanced ToF technologies into applications that require 3D depth information for smart homes, offices, retail, building automation, and robotics.”
TARO can be easily controlled and configured from a PC or tablet application. In addition to its flexibility to download new algorithms into the camera hardware for a variety of applications, TARO has built-in support for USB, SPI, UART and I2C. The hardware can also be upgraded with optional support for wireless interfaces like WiFi, Zigbee and Bluetooth. An OEM version of TARO is available, without the housing, for direct integration into existing customer systems.