Intel Announces RealSense Tracking Camera for Autonomous Devices

Intel announced a new standalone inside-out tracking camera for autonomous devices that require high-performance guidance and navigation.

Intel RealSense Tracking Camera T265

Intel designed this type of camera for lightweight robots and drones that require navigation even where GPS service is not available -- for instance, in warehouses or remote outdoor areas.

Agriculture is another use for this type of technology. Robots can use the T265 camera to navigate farmland in a precise pattern and avoid obstacles. The camera could also be used for autonomous delivery robots inside hospital wards.

Sagi Ben Moshe, the vice president and general manager of Intel's RealSense Group, said:

“Understanding your environment is a critical component for many devices. The T265 was designed to complement our existing Intel RealSense Depth Cameras and provide a quick path to product development with our next-generation integrated V-SLAM technology.”

V-SLAM stands for visual simultaneous localization and mapping, which is a technology that uses image processing to construct a representation of the explored zone by the robot, which also uses it to determine its location.

Intel T265 Technology

According to Intel, the T265 camera delivers six degrees of freedom (6DoF) inside-out tracking by gathering inputs from two fish-eye cameras, each with an approximate 170-degree range of view. All the position calculations are performed directly on the device, which allows the T265 to run on devices with very low compute resources.

The T265 camera itself uses a Movidius Myriad 2 visual processing unit (VPU) that handles the necessary data tracking on the machine. Intel said the only additional hardware needed is sufficient non-volatile memory to boot the device and USB 2.0 or 3.0 connection to provide it with 1.5W of power.

The RealSense T265 tracking camera is now available for pre-order for $199 and will start shipping on February 28.