PrimeSense资料杂烩

一：PrimeSense 是谁？

以色列3d传感器公司，成立于2005年，2006年成功研制出基于结构光原理的3维传感器（这款芯片运用了“光编码”技术去制造场景，并且使用近IR（红外辐射）光线和CMOS（互补金属半导体）传感器去解读场景背后的光代码，最后使用复杂的算法去分析3D数据。），2009年微软发布的体感游戏产品-kinect便是采用该公司提供的3D传感器。2010 年年底，PrimeSense 与华硕合作开发了 Xtion Pro——和 Kinect 采用了同样的 3D 传感器，不过只能在 PC 上使用。2011 年，PrimeSense 与 Willow Garage 合作，创立了旨在“推动 3D 应用开源软件社区发展”的非营利性机构OpenNI。2012 年（也有说2013年的），PrimeSense 推出了世界上体积最小的 3D 传感器 Capri，它的分辨率是前代产品的 3 倍，而体型是前代的十分之一，环境光的检测性能是前代的 50 倍，可以在日光下工作。Capri 可以嵌入到平板电脑、笔记本电脑、智能手机以及显示器中。最后以34亿美元被苹果收购。

二：PrimeSense新一代3d传感器Capri

PrimeSense's 3D sensor, which is what's inside the Microsoft Kinect, hasrevolutionized vision for very cheap and very expensive robots. That's not what it was supposed to do: it was supposed to help lazy gamers get off their couches and jump around a little bit. PrimeSense is still very focused on marketable consumer applications with the next generation of the 3D sensor, called Capri, but we're more interested in what it'll do for our robots. At CES last week, we got some hands-on time with Capri, and we have some details for you.

Engineers are familiar with the idea of being able to pick two of the following: faster, better, cheaper. PrimeSense has instead gone with much smaller, probably cheaper (although we're not sure), and arguably just a little bit worse when it comes to performance. The overall size of the sensor has shrunk bya factor of 10, which isreally the big news here, and otherwise, most of the specs have stayed the same. Here's what you'll get with Capri:

• Field of View 57.5×45

• Range 0.8m-3.5m

• VGA depth map (640×480)

• USB 2.0 powered

• Standard off the shelf components

• OpenNI compliant

PrimeSense told us that their focus was to "maintain" performance while focusing on miniaturization and cost reduction. And performance isnearly the same, with the exception of there being no RGB camera. This isn't great news for robotics, since having an integrated color camera is a nice feature, but we have to remember that we're just piggybacking on the fact that PrimeSense is really trying to get into the mobile market: Capri is small enough that it'll be able to fit into tablets (and eventually smartphones), and for pure 3D sensing, an RGB camera just adds cost and complexity that's unnecessary for the application. It's tough that robotics isn't yet a big enough market to allow us to dictate features for something like Capri, but as long as we can adapt this sort of technology to make robots cheaper and more capable, we'll get there.

   “Capri就是PrimeSense的未来。”Dagan说到，“不仅仅是因为其更小的尺寸、更低的价格以及更低的能耗，其最大的优势还在于它能够在手机上运行。Capri的目的就是为了让每一位消费者的设备中都安装有3D传感器。”

Capri在移动终端上的应用前景举例：测绘--测身高/3d打印出成像目标；体感游戏--苹果收购primesense，旨在智能电视、智能手机上开拓体感游戏体验。

总之，这款芯片价格便宜，能耗低，而且它微小的体型使其适用于手提电脑、平板设备以及智能手机。随着3D技术的蓬勃发展，Capri将是PrimeSense公司从视频游戏领域走向更宽广行业的一个标志产品。（《世界上最小3D传感器亮相 可应用于手机设备中》）

三：苹果为何拿下 PrimeSense？

PrimeSense 给苹果带来的最直接帮助便是智能电视方面的交互改进。客厅是各大科技公司下一个必争之地，而微软已经依靠 Xbox Kinect 建立了先发优势。通过收购，苹果在体感操作方面的研发成本及周期都可能得到改善，加之日渐成熟的 Siri 语音助手以及深度应用到各产品线的触控技术，Apple 牌智能电视将形成体感、语音、触控海陆空多栖交互方式。

9to5Mac 曾在 9 月份报道，称苹果正在为未来的电视相关产品测试类似 Xbox Kinect 的动作传感器。因此可以这么说，拿下 PrimeSense 有望加速苹果智能电视的推出。当然，体感操作也可能率先应用在苹果机顶盒产品上。

考虑到 PrimeSense 在移动设备上也进行了技术积累（Capri 等），那么日后苹果的手机、平板、Mac 甚至未来的智能手表加入体感操作也不会让人奇怪。

说明：本文章主要整理自以下网页：

http://www.cnbeta.com/articles/237558.htm

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/handson-with-the-next-generation-kinect-primesense-capri

http://digi.tech.qq.com/a/20130625/002637.htm