CALABASAS, Calif., Dec. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StereoVision Imaging, Inc. (SVI) has been granted four new continuation patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and one new continuation patent issued by the European Patent Office. The patents build and expand upon the company’s extensive patent portfolio focused on biometric/object recognition and remote sensing technology.
The result of more than $100 million invested in R&D over the last 10 years, the new issuances bring SVI’s patent portfolio to 61 patents issued worldwide, with 46 patents pending across 24 patent families. They provide further protection for SVI’s Mil-Spec, field-proven and uniquely capable technology as it launches a new commercialization campaign.
“These new patents both continue and broaden the protection of our technology portfolio focused on detecting and measuring moving objects in real world situations,” commented SVI president, Gregory Steinthal. “These latest patents include changes that greatly expand the scope of the protections compared to the original related patents. They place SVI in an exceptionally secure position as we commercialize our IP portfolio of over 100 patents and patents pending, which includes potentially partnering with those who are infringing.”
“There have been a number of major investments or IPOs announced recently at multimillion to multibillion-dollar valuations, particularly in the autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle space, involving the use of coherent FMCW LiDAR,” continued Steinthal. “As the owner of the first patents in the dual chirp 4D FMCW LiDAR space, we believe that we have established the furthest reaching IP portfolio for determining range and velocity, and we plan on exploiting this advantage fully.”
The new patents primarily relate to the application of frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) LiDAR technology that can be used for biometric measurement, identification and security, as well as other fields of use, such as autonomous vehicles, medical biometric monitoring, robotics, and mobile devices.
The five new patents cover a range of applications and benefits across several of the company’s 26 patent families:
Dual Chirp FMCW LiDAR (U.S. patent no. 10,578,738): Covers a laser-based radar system that uses two or more laser beams to improve speed and accuracy when determining the range and velocity of a distant target. It supports instantaneous per pixel velocity measurement and multibeam LiDAR applications by modulating the beam or “chirping” in a unique fashion using two or more chirps to accurately measure the Doppler shift or changes in the frequency of the beam reflected off a target that are caused by the target in motion.
Video Stream Improvements (patent no. 10,796,417): Using change detection between video frames, improvements are made to a video stream resulting in more accurate facial matching.
Eye Tracking (U.S. patent no. 10,791,925): Using the position information of the face as provided by detection and ranging systems, such as by radar or LiDAR, eyeball detection and motion tracking information is determined.
Determining Range Through Transparent Surfaces Such as Glass (U.S. patent no. 10,761,210): Supports determining the distance to an object even through transparent surfaces, such as glass windows or vehicle windshields.
Fusion of FMCW LiDAR with Video (European patent no. 2399150B): A system that uses range and Doppler velocity from LiDAR along with images from video to estimate the six degree-of-freedom trajectory of a target.
SVI’s technology is currently in use globally for biometric facial recognition in military applications. Having now established an extensive portfolio of patent-protected IP around FMCW LiDAR, the company sees a “blue ocean” of potential commercial sector uses, including autonomous vehicles, industrial metrology, and any application where instantaneous, sub-millimeter accurate measurements of the size, distance and movement of objects, even at long ranges, are required. The company is now focused on commercializing its IP in these additional potentially highly lucrative markets.
For more than the last 10 years, SVI has been operating under a stealth U.S. military-funded facial recognition project. It has become the sole-source supplier to the U.S. Army of an advanced Facial Recognition Binocular System (FRBS) used by U.S. war fighters in the field. The company recently announced a new follow-on order that brought the total value of units purchased by the military to more than $4.5 million.
Since SVI was granted a commercial export license by the U.S. Commerce Department, the company has initiated the development of products for use in the commercial sector and has signed a number of IP licenses with strategic partners.
“In addition to introducing our own products, we look forward to entering into additional strategic licensing agreements to develop our dual chirp 4D FMCW LiDAR to its fullest commercial potential,” added Steinthal. “Our full family of LiDAR technology IP presents an attractive licensing opportunity to potential partners and supports our recently launched commercial product roll-out.”
SVI has conducted an extensive ‘Freedom to Operate’ (FTO) analysis of its Dual Chirp FMCW LiDAR patent family. Typically a lengthy and expensive process, especially for large patent portfolios, an FTO analysis determines whether a technology of interest infringes any patent owned by another party. It helps to mitigate the risk of potentially infringing on third-party patents when going to market, as well as helps identify potential infringement by others. It also facilitates product development by informing design changes necessary to avoid identified patent barriers. This helps to provide assurances to current and potential IP licensee and strategic partners.
The SVI Advantage
The main advantages of SVI’s dual chirp FMCW 4D LiDAR over other types of LiDAR is its ability to instantly determine at exceptionally long ranges all four key dimensions of an object: length, width, depth and velocity. Unique to SVI technology is its ability to acquire velocity or motion information instantaneously at 40x the distance compared to traditional systems, while still being eye safe.
SVI FMCW 4D LiDAR also works in real world situations regardless of a subject’s movement, pose, expression, lighting conditions or occlusions, such as beards or sunglasses, or through a vehicle windshield. The technology can measure velocity down to millimeters per second, allowing the remote detection of heart and breathing rate and speech (U.S. patent no. 9,872,639), as well as eye movement (U.S. patent no. 10,791,925), which can provide indications of alertness, psychological condition, or intent. The technology is also ideal for any application requiring highly accurate, sub-millimeter measurement of the size, distance and movement of any object, such as required for industrial metrology. To learn more, visit www.stereovisioninc.com.
About StereoVision Imaging
StereoVision Imaging, Inc. (SVI) is an emerging world leader in facial/object recognition and remote sensing technology for several markets and industries, from military reconnaissance and physical security to autonomous driving, robotics, mobile devices and more. For these applications, SVI develops and manufactures proprietary and highly advanced 4D FMCW LiDAR technology (four-dimensional frequency-modulated continuous wave light detection and ranging). The result of more than $100 million invested in R&D over the last 10 years, SVI’s Mil-Spec, field-proven and uniquely capable technology is protected by more than 100 patents and patents pending worldwide. For additional information, please visit www.stereovisioninc.com.
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