What is Intel RealSense Technology?

Since Shenzhen IDF 14 (held on April 2, 2014), Intel has reserved a lot of time for its RealSense technology at every important exhibition, such as Taipei Computer Show and CES. This situation has continued for more than a year. At the San Francisco IDF 15 held in August, RealSense was still an important technology that Intel focused on promoting.

So what kind of technology is RealSense? What are its application prospects? Who are its competitors? What impact will it have on the future development of computer technology? With these questions, let's take a look at what real-sense technology is.

In short, RealSense technology is a set of camera components developed by Intel that are equipped with multiple sensors. It can be placed on a laptop, or designed on a tablet or even a small mobile device such as a mobile phone. It can also be used by geeks on drones and even smart robots.

Through the RealSense camera component, these devices will have more and better functions. For example, fast 3D scanning, environmental sensing, biometrics, floating touch, etc., and even some attributes of VR or AR. These functions will help the corresponding devices to complete some tasks more conveniently. For example, a tablet equipped with RealSense can quickly build a 3D model of the scanned object through the 3D scanning function, so that even people who don’t know how to use professional software modeling can easily handle 3D printing.

RealSense camera components

For example, drones equipped with RealSense can fly stress-free in the woods through their environmental sensing and infrared positioning functions. Currently, even the most skilled drone pilots dare not fly through densely covered forests.

Through these examples, we can feel that although RealSense has not yet penetrated into the general public, its application prospects are very broad. Perhaps it is just waiting for a better opportunity or a mentor.

RealSense and VR and AR

In 2015, technology companies including Microsoft, Sony, and FaceBook began to focus on the AR and VR markets. Microsoft's HoloLens, the newly renamed Sony PlayStation VR, and Oculus acquired by FaceBook are undoubtedly the current leaders in the AR and VR industries. In addition, manufacturers in various fields including Razer, LeTV, and Samsung have also begun to explore the VR and AR fields and have launched corresponding devices one after another. However, in this process, many people have overlooked Intel's RealSense technology.

The current main direction of AR and AR devices is in the field of entertainment and games. At the just-concluded TGS (Tokyo Game Show), Sony announced many games based on the PlayStation VR platform and provided several DEMOs for trial play. Although there is no further news about Microsoft HoloLens in the field of AR, judging from some early demonstrations, the combination of HoloLens and the XBOX platform in the future will also bring a completely different experience from the past.

VR and AR will become the hot spots of the industry in 2016

Manufacturers such as Razer, Baofeng Video, LeTV, Samsung, etc. provide VR solutions for mobile phones and PC video entertainment. For example, LeTV recently launched a 360° panoramic sports event live broadcast platform, which is a good example; and Razer also exhibited VR gaming glasses equipment at IDF 15 held in August.

Judging from the actions of these industry giants, 2016 will be a year of explosive growth for VR and AR technologies.

This is also a critical year for Intel RealSense. Unlike pure VR and AR, RealSense actually takes into account the application possibilities of both at the technical level. It provides developers with more imagination and can help them develop AR or VR devices with more diverse functions.

However, this diversification has also become a double-edged sword. Whether it is HoloLens and PlayStation VR for gaming, or Baofeng Video and LeTV virtual reality glasses for video entertainment, although they are single-positioned, they have clearer goals, which can find user positioning more quickly than RealSense, which takes both ends into consideration.

In addition, the promotion path of RealSense is still through laptops or tablets. However, how many OEM manufacturers can join the RealSense camp and make RealSense cameras the standard of future laptop cameras is still a big problem. At the same time, from the user's perspective, it is often a feeling of "Oh, RealSense is indeed rich in functions, but it seems not enough to impress me to buy the corresponding equipment." Therefore, whether from the perspective of the entire industry, products, or users, RealSense still has a long way to go.

What is the application prospect of real-sense technology?

Committed to the PC industry, the popularization of RealSense technology seems to be a natural thing. Just like when cameras were first popularized on laptops, many people thought that it was unnecessary to put a camera on a laptop, as it was not as good as a camera for taking photos or a DV for taking videos. However, when the Internet era came, cameras became a necessary device for video conferencing and network communication, and thus became the standard hardware for laptops today.

RealSense is also a camera, but it has more powerful functions than ordinary cameras. A RealSense camera integrates infrared sensors and various sensors. These components can make computers or other devices more sensitive in 3D scanning, distance perception, etc., and make these devices look smarter.

Not only computers, but also mobile phones can become the carrier of RealSense

In addition to becoming standard computer hardware, RealSense's application prospects in other fields cannot be underestimated.

For example, in the field of games, players can use the RealSense camera to scan their appearance into the game, become the protagonist of the game, and then control themselves to adventure in the game world. Unfortunately, compared with manufacturers such as Microsoft and Sony that have their own game platforms, the development of RealSense games is still relatively slow. At least, we haven't seen even a single game that supports RealSense scanning modeling.

For example, in the field of commercial applications, RealSense's distance and space perception functions will play a greater role. Through these functions, your mobile phone or tablet can be turned into a 3D modeling tool, and you only need to scan the object you want to model. RealSense can complete the modeling very quickly, so it can play a greater role in the fields of architecture and art.

In addition, RealSense also has great practical potential in information security. Its biometric function, combined with the Windows Hello function, can create more types of login methods. The most basic one is face recognition. In addition, you can also use expressions or actions to achieve login recognition. Compared with the previous single face recognition, RealSense can bring more possibilities, and also make computers, mobile phones, and tablet devices more secure. After all, spies will not know which method you chose for secure login verification.

Judging from these application areas, RealSense not only has application value in gaming and entertainment, but also has great potential in business, security and other fields.

In the final analysis, Intel's RealSense is likely to be popularized first in notebooks and tablets. After all, Intel has a complete ecosystem in the PC field. As long as users can experience the practical value of RealSense, its popularity will become inevitable. In addition, according to Intel's official information, although the RealSense camera component has various functions, the overall cost is actually not high, and it can be popularized in mainstream notebooks or tablets.

HP all-in-one computer with RealSense camera and floating touch support

So if future computer cameras all have RealSense technology, what changes will happen to our computers?

First of all, our PC devices will become smarter. The original computer cameras were only used for video chatting and video conferencing, but they could not sense things. The RealSense camera component can recognize the 3D graphics of objects, sense the size of the space, and sense the distance of objects through various built-in sensors, which makes the computer camera move from 2D to 3D, making it more useful.

Secondly, our PCs will become more secure. As mentioned earlier, the biometric recognition function of RealSense is not just face recognition, it can have more recognition methods for security verification, thereby improving the security of PC devices. In addition, the recognition speed of RealSense is faster than that of ordinary cameras, so there is no need to worry about the slow recognition speed affecting the login speed.

In summary, by changing a camera, we can bring better practical value to computers and greatly improve security, which is actually very considerable. However, if we can achieve greater success in games and entertainment, RealSense will definitely become the promoter of the future PC revolution.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.