RealSense, a depth-camera technology that basically disappeared within Intel, has returned as a separate company. The company has spun out from Intel and raised 50 million in funding. The company will be led by Nadav Orbach, Intel's former vice president and general Manager for the Incubation and Disruptive Innovation group. RealSense plans to address "increased demand for humanoid and autonomous mobile robotics (AMRs), as well as AI-powered access control and security solutions," the company said. RealSense flourished, so to speak, about a decade ago, when its depth-camera technology was competing with the Microsoft Kinect system.

Over the past decade, a multitude of service robots have been developed to fulfill a wide range of practical purposes. Notably, roles such as reception and robotic guidance have garnered extensive popularity. In these positions, robots are progressively assuming the responsibilities traditionally held by human staff in assisting customers. Ensuring the safe and socially acceptable operation of robots in such environments poses a fundamental challenge within the context of Socially Responsible Navigation (SRN). This article presents an architecture for user identification and social navigation with a mobile robot that employs computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence algorithms to identify and guide users in a social navigation context, thereby providing an intuitive and user-friendly experience with the robot.

Dual cameras are so passé. Qualcomm is getting ready to define the next generation of cameras for the Android ecosystem. It's adding three new camera modules to its Spectra Module Program, which lets device manufacturers select ready-made parts for their products. The additions are an iris-authentication front-facing option, an "Entry-Level Computer Vision" setup and a "Premium Computer Vision" kit. The latter two carry out passive and active depth-sensing respectively, using Qualcomm's newly revamped image signal processing (ISP) architecture.

In February Amigobulls reported that Alphabet (NSDQ:GOOGL) was using chips from startup Movidius for the development of next-generation Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. Movidius, a company specialized in low-power machine vision for connected devices, has been working with Alphabet to accelerate the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within mobile devices. Now, the machine vision startup is being acquired by Intel (NSDQ:INTC). "I'm excited to announce the planned acquisition of Movidius by Intel," said Movidius CEO Remi El-Ouazzane. "Movidius' mission is to give the power of sight to machines. As part of Intel, we'll remain focused on this mission, but with the technology and resources to innovate faster and execute at scale."

Intel has grand plans for computers that will recognize human emotion using its RealSense 3D camera, but Apple appears to have dealt it a setback. RealSense uses a combination of infrared, laser and optical cameras to measure depth and track motion. It's been used on a drone that can navigate its own way through a forest, for example. It can also detect changes in facial expressions, and Intel wanted to give RealSense the ability to read human emotions by combining it with an emotion recognition technology developed by Emotient. Emotient's plug-in allowed RealSense to detect whether people are happy or sad by analyzing movement in their lips, eyes and cheeks.