We caught up with Andy Hanvey, Director of Automotive Marketing at OMNIVISION, to chat all things new and emerging with OMNIVISION – from their latest sensor technology to their approach to cybersecurity in relation to in-cabin monitoring technology.
Exterior automotive imaging applications are quickly evolving, can you summarise the requirements from customers that you are seeking to meet?
Our customers’ requirements are mainly focused on sensor performance KPIs, which include HDR, LFM, lowlight and pixel size/resolution. Meeting 140dB HDR/LFM and achieving the best lowlight performance is a key requirement.
There are tradeoffs in bringing sensors to market – what do you think is the biggest compromise image sensor manufacturers are making?
It is all about getting the balance of features right on the product, between over-specifying a sensor vs. ensuring the sensor has a long lifetime. A good example would be the cybersecurity feature – would it be necessary for a 1Mp RVC camera? Maybe not. However, it is a must-have for ADAS/AD targeted products.
How do you see this developing in the future as the market grows?
Andy Hanvey
Director of Automotive Marketing
For example, the volume market requires 1Mp ¼ inch size, and in the future they will need a 3Mp sensor. However, they will want to keep the ¼ inch format for ease of integration in the vehicle. This requirement will drive the pixel size down to 2.1µm. OMNIVISION is predicting this trend and launched X3D during CES 2022 to meet this requirement.
How do the requirements differ when looking inside the cabin, with respect to DMS and OMS?
Exterior and interior sensing have different technical requirements due to different lighting, object, and distance for example. DMS requirements include highQE for 940nm, small size, and low power. OMS can use RGB or RGB-Ir sensors with HDR.
Are there any tradeoffs in this realm?
The DMS KPI focus on looking at the driver’s status (eyes), while OMS is looking at the wider occupancy in the entire cabin.
OMNIVISION recently unveiled the OX05B1S, the first 5-megapixel (MP) RGB-IR global shutter sensor for in-cabin driver monitoring systems. What kind of performance can we expect from this new sensor?
This sensor is the first that would allow DMS and OMS functionalities to be achieved from one camera. It will also enable the positioning in the center stack or as part of the mirror. DMS is a traditional application with a focus on the driver. OMS will focus on other passengers in the car. With the RGB-Ir CFA, this can allow for a stream to be viewed (presented in the car) while still using the same camera for traditional DMS.
The OX05B1S is also the first sensor for in-cabin monitoring to feature integrated cybersecurity. What possibilities does this integration unlock?
There are a number of things OX05B1S will unlock for in-cabin monitoring. The most important will be allowing for facial recognition in cybersecurity products.
We were excited to have OMNIVISION join us at AutoSens Detroit 2022 as our Lead Sponsor. Can you give us an overview of your exhibition?
We had several launches planned for AutoSens and we showed quite a number of demo’s to showcase our technologies. In addition, our technical leaders (Boyd Fowler and Eichiee Funatsu) presented at the show. This was definitely something you didn’t want to miss.
It was such a long time since we could last met in Detroit. What were you most looking forward to at the conference?
It was great to meet up with people in person again and to be able to share and learn from our colleagues and customers at AutoSens Detroit.
Key experts from OMNIVISION spoke on Wednesday 11th at 9:40am EST, with a keynote on ‘A review of the key technical challenges of developing exterior cameras’ delivered by Boyd Fowler, CTO at OMNIVISION. Dr Eiichi Funatsu, VP of Technology at OMNIVISION also presented on the Wednesday at 5:30pm EST on ‘Evaluating non-RGV colour filter options in automotive applications.’
