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According to a [PDF] paper to be presented at the 2019 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, June 15-21 in Long beach, California, researchers have discovered a "simple, cost-effective, and accurate new method" of enabling self driving cars to recognize 3d objects in their path.
Currently bulky expensive lasers, scanners, and specialized GPS receivers are used in LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensors and mounted on top of the vehicle. This causes increased drag as well as being unsightly and adding another ~$10,000 to the price tag. Until now, this has been the only viable option.
Cornell researchers have discovered that a simpler method, using two inexpensive cameras on either side of the windshield, can detect objects with nearly LiDAR's accuracy and at a fraction of the cost. The researchers found that analyzing the captured images from a bird's eye view rather than the more traditional frontal view more than tripled their accuracy, making stereo cameras a viable and low-cost alternative to LiDAR.
According to the paper, which goes into this in considerable depth, it is not the quality of images and data which causes the difference in accuracy, but the representation of the data. Adjusting this brings the object detection results using far less expensive camera data for 3D image-analysis up to nearly the same effectiveness as much more expensive LiDAR.
Kilian Weinberger, associate professor of computer science and senior author of the paper, notes that
stereo cameras could potentially be used as the primary way of identifying objects in lower-cost cars, or as a backup method in higher-end cars that are also equipped with LiDAR.
The paper concludes that future work may improve image-based 3D object detection using the denser data feed from cameras further, fully closing the gap with LiDAR.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by dltaylor on Wednesday April 24 2019, @06:36PM (2 children)
And so it begins, raising the risk to everyone around robocars in the name of "cost reduction".
I have argued for years that robocars are a fundamentally "bad idea", not because they cannot be built well, but because they will not be built well. Program managers under pressure to reduce cost will inevitably take every shortcut available, including lowest quality components, minimally functional software, and very little QA.
If the widespread diesel emissions cheating and the Boeing MCAS fiasco haven't taught us that, how stupid are we?
(Score: 2) by pipedwho on Wednesday April 24 2019, @09:00PM (1 child)
This applies equally to non-robo cars.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Wednesday April 24 2019, @10:33PM
And roads, and trains, and traffic lights, trucks, buses, buildings...
Faster! Cheaper! More broken!
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex