Lumentum Holdings Inc. and Ambarella, Inc. announced a new joint reference design that uniquely combines edge artificial intelligence (AI) with privacy, enabling new possibilities for smart building applications. Called Vision-D, this design combines Lumentum's flood illuminator module for extremely accurate time-of-flight (ToF) 3D sensing, with Ambarella's CV22 edge AI SoC, which provides AI performance per watt. This combination allows small AIoT sensors with local processing to be blanketed across buildings for applications such as occupancy monitoring, intelligent space management and smart retail.

Additionally, ToF 3D sensing maintains privacy by generating a point cloud with granular 3D information, but without any personally identifiable information, for applications such as healthcare and eldercare. In addition to supporting multiple image sensor inputs, Ambarella's CV22 SoC also offers a rich set of peripheral interfaces for a broad range of other sensors—including humidity, temperature and audio—to enhance environmental perception. The Lumentum10 W flood illuminator module incorporates a high-performance, three-junction vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) array for ToF 3D sensing.

The Vision-D reference design provides a versatile platform for a wide range of applications in smart building automation, healthcare, smart retail and home security. Examples include smart PIRs for home security that are able to differentiate pets from intruders; hotel environmental and scheduling systems that can intelligently adjust the HVAC temperature in reserved rooms based on real-time occupancy; and remote monitoring of aging parents without invading their privacy. Regardless of the location, AI algorithms running on this reference design can monitor occupants for sudden falls or medical events, intelligently and immediately triggering a request for emergency services.

Availability: The new Vision-D joint reference design is available now.