Intel RealSense D400 - Digital Reality Cameras

In late January, Intel announced the release of a new series of 3D cameras RealSense D400, consisting of two models - D415 and D435 . Recently, we have been talking so little about Intel RealSense technology that, perhaps, it is worth taking advantage of the occasion and talking about new products in more detail - especially since there are also good news on software.

Intel RealSense is a software-hardware technology for obtaining and processing three-dimensional images, that is, images in which the flat RGB component is supplemented by a depth map — the distance from each point of the photo to the camera. To use this technology requires:

• RealSense camera . During the existence of their technology, several of the currently relevant models were released: the previous generation - the SR300 and the current one - just presented by the D400;
• Intel RealSense SDK software, drivers, and libraries. The SDK supports Linux, Windows and MacOS platforms and is now an open source product (which is good news); Binaries and source code are published on GitHub.

New 3D-cameras are based on the latest RealSense processor model - D4. For mobile devices, a smaller embedded version of the processor is available - D4m with slightly reduced features and integration via the MIPI interface. By the way, Intel is ready to provide developers and manufacturers not only “boxed” RealSense solutions, but also components: D4 / D4m processors or D400 depth modules.


Depth Embedded Module D400

In the previous series of RealSense cameras, they were divided into a short-focus, user-facing and more long-focus, looking at the world - for more effective use in applications. D400 Series cameras are made more versatile. D415 gives a clearer picture, but has a lower speed and a more distant minimum distance. The D435 is more suitable for AR / VR applications, as its global shutter works better with fast moving objects. More detailed characteristics of the cameras are given in the table.

	D415	D435
Application	Room / Outdoor
Depth determination	Dual IR beam
Shutter type	Sliding	Global
Pixel size	1.4 x 1.4 µm	3 x 3 microns
Depth field size	63.4 ° x 40.4 °	85.2 ° x 58 °
Depth field resolution	1280 x 720
RGB stream options	1080p @ 30 FPS
Depth range	0.16 - 10 m	0.11 - 10 m
Camera size (W x D x H)	99 x 20 x 23 mm	90 x 25 x 25 mm

Where can RealSense technology be used? There are a lot of options. Here are the already mentioned AR / VR applications, autonomous robotics and computer vision, face recognition, on-the-fly video stream processing and segmentation, three-dimensional scanning and much more. The scope of the technology is limited only by your imagination - as an original example, we can cite the Naked fitness tracker, where with the help of RealSense the system receives a “map” of the body to calculate the loads and then adjust it. Other examples can be found, for example, in the RealSense home test report we conducted in 2016.

We know that during the existence of Intel RealSense, many developers have discovered the world of "digital reality" with it. Technology is improving, and we invite new enthusiasts to try it.

Intel RealSense D400 cameras are already available for pre-order for $ 179 for model 435 and $ 149 for model 415 .