The future
In recent years, increased availability of cheap camera sensors and microcontrollers together with cloud services and good internet communication has enabled cheap collection and analysis of large amounts of data. This combined with great advances in artificial intelligence (AI), which has the strength to be able to analyze large amounts of data and draw complex conclusions, means that computer vision and AI seem to take an increasing role in both our everyday lives and industrial applications. We have seen this development in everything from self-driving cars to Google's AlfaGo beating the best Go players in 2017 (2). Photometric stereo can be an advantageous way of collecting data compared to a regular image because it contains information about the shape of the surface.
For Knightec, it is important to be a driving force in development and by creating broad competence, we can give the customer the best solution. The fact that Knightec is at the forefront of technological development not only ensures our own competitiveness, it also provides an opportunity to help our customers become competitive.
Author
Linus Beccau is an engineer in technical physics at Umeå University with a great interest in technology who during his studies was a driving force in developing Technical Physics Innovatorium, an environment where students can develop their technical interests and build everything from 3D printers and robots to twittering coffee machines. In 2015, Linus won the Technical Physics Robot Competition together with Knightec's Marc Sellgren. Today he works as a consultant at Knightec to develop tomorrow's technology.
References:
1. Robert J. Woodham, Photometric Method For Determining Surface Orientation From Multiple Images. Optical Engineering, 19(1), 191139 (1980)
2. Google AI defeats human Go champion , https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40042581