2023-06-21 カーネギーメロン大学
◆超高速光学を使用するこのシステムは、車が歩行者を避けたり、自転車や他の車と衝突しないようにするなど、安全性を向上させることができます。この技術は音響を使用して光の進む経路を制御し、複雑な3D光のパターンを形成することができます。
◆従来のLiDARデバイスでは回転ミラーを使用してスキャンするため、処理が遅くなる問題がありましたが、この新しいシステムによりスキャン速度が100倍高速化されます。この技術は、自動車業界や画像処理システムなど、さまざまな応用分野で活用される可能性があります。
＜関連情報＞
可動部品なしのメガヘルツ光ステアリング Megahertz Light Steering without Moving Parts
Adithya Pediredla, Srinivasa Narasimhan, Maysam Chamanzar, and Ioannis Gkioulekas
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) 2023 Conference
Abstract
We introduce a light steering technology that operates at megahertz frequencies, has no moving parts, and costs less than a hundred dollars. Our technology can benefit many projector and imaging systems that critically rely on high-speed, reliable, low-cost, and wavelength-independent light steering, including laser scanning projectors, LiDAR sensors, and fluorescence microscopes. Our technology uses ultrasound waves to generate a spatiotemporally-varying refractive index field inside a compressible medium, such as water, turning the medium into a dynamic traveling lens. By controlling the electrical input of the ultrasound transducers that generate the waves, we can change the lens, and thus steer light, at the speed of sound (1.5 km/s in water). We build a physical prototype of this technology, use it to realize different scanning techniques at megahertz rates (three orders of magnitude faster than commercial alternatives such as galvo mirror scanners), and demonstrate proof-of-concept projector and LiDAR applications. To encourage further innovation towards this new technology, we derive theory for its fundamental limits and develop a physically-accurate simulator for virtual design. Our technology offers a promising solution for achieving high-speed and low-cost light steering in a variety of applications.
