We are continuously improving our stereo vision technology for 3D depth perception. Today this effort resulted in a new firmware release for our SP1 stereo vision sensor, which more than doubles the achievable depth resolution.
This dramatic increase has been made possible by allowing the SP1 to search a wider image overlap region – the disparity range – for corresponding image points. The larger the disparity range, the more accurate the final depth measurements, as can be seen in our online calculator. While the disparity range had been fixed at 112 pixels in the past, we now allow a range of up to 256 pixels – more than twice the previous size.
Our customers are using the SP1 in very different applications. While speed might be the most important criterion for some use cases, others are primarily focused on accuracy. The larger disparity range now allows to obtain more precise measurements at a reduced frame rate. But even at the full frame rate, the SP1 can now process a 14% larger disparity range, leading to an equally sized error reduction.
For a list of recommended frame rate, image resolution and disparity range combinations, please consult our updated SP1 product page. As always, this update is made available free of charge to all our existing customers.