How Eye Imaging Technology Could Help Robots and Cars See Better

Even though robots don’t have eyes with retinas, the key to helping them see and interact with the world more naturally and safely may rest in optical coherence tomography (OCT) machines commonly found in the offices of ophthalmologists. One of the imaging technologies that many robotics companies are integrating into their sensor packages is Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR for short. Currently commanding great attention and investment from self-driving car developers, the approach essentially works like radar, but instead of sending out broad radio waves and looking for reflections, it uses short pulses of light from lasers. Traditional ...