Senic (YC S13) builds a laser distance meter for smartphones
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
I have always wondered how these devices actually calculate distances. I have experimented with Arduino & Parallax, and I've seen how the resolution of an ultrasonic distance sensor is directly affected by the processor speed -- the processor is merely counting the fractions of a second between sending the ping pulse, and receiving its echo. But a 1 MHz processor can only just count milliseconds. A 16 MHz processor can count only slightly faster. At the room-temperature speed of sound, this gives you a resolution of about 1/29th of an inch, or 1/74th of a centimeter.
In theory, the same should be possible with light -- send a light pulse then count the fractions of a second for it to return. Thinking back to Grace Hopper's Nanosecond [1], a 1mhz processor would have a resolution of hundreds of feet. So these must be using a very small, simple, multi-GHz processor to get a resolution of about 2/15 of an inch.
Unless these devices do their measurement in a completely different way...
Multiple frequency phase-shift or Interferometry allows you to do even better.
Do you know where these 10 GHz transistors can be found?
Cheaper LRF's can use triangulation with a known baseline. That's how Neato robotic managed their $10 spinning version for the vacuum: http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/12/20/ultra-low-cost-laser-r...
To wit... I like to disassemble laser rangefinders!
http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/01/04/velodyne-hdl-64e-laser...
http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/02/14/omron-sti-optoshield-o...
http://www.hizook.com/blog/2008/12/15/sick-laser-rangefinder...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometry
If they're not going for that kind of precision and range they could simply use ultrasound instead of a laser.
Range on this thing is impressive and precision is too: accurate up to 0.075 ", though they don't specify at what range that precision is still attainable. Typically with increased range on cheap devices you'll get an increase in absolute error so a percentage of the absolute distance would be expected. Maybe that's due to this being a laser device.
Interesting application of tech, a bluetooth enabled range finder could really be useful, especially for realtors that have to measure up a whole bunch of houses on a typical day and that need to keep track of what they measured.
Even more useful if the app would record audio along with the measurements made for later transcription.
From http://ptd.leica-geosystems.com/en/Measuring-Techniques_4939...
"The laser diode emits light pulses with a defined wavelength and pulse repetition frequency. Due to the runtime difference between the internal reference path and the external measurement path, the light pulses, reflected on a target and received from the Leica DISTO™, have experienced a phase shift in relation to the light pulses received through the internal reference path. That phase difference between those two signals is proportional to the distance between instrument and target."
Laser distance meters are essentially tiny radar units operating with light instead of radio waves (lidar). With a pulse radar, you need the pulse itself to be of extremely short duration, especially when you're measuring short distances. You need to have stopped transmitting by the time you begin receiving the reflection to have any hope of actually finding the reflection (because the return "sounds" exactly like what you're transmitting). In order to reliably detect a short unmodulated pulse, the transmitted power generally has to be pretty high so that the reflection is loud enough that you don't miss it.
Short pulses and high power are generally hard to do with cheap semiconductor devices (big radar pulse generators tend to use vacuum tubes and exotic and expensive hardware).
A better approach for lower power devices is to modulate the carrier wave itself and then transmit a longer, lower power pulse. One way to do this is to transmit a "chirp" (a transmission that starts at a low frequency and ramps up to a high frequency). When you receive the radar return, you'll start receiving the initial low frequency while the transmitter has moved on to transmitting a higher frequency. You can then use this frequency difference and the chirp rate to compute the time of flight and therefore the distance. This also has an added advantage of allowing you to integrate the received signal for a much longer period of time, so it tends to be a lot less noisy and error prone than a pulse radar.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FMCW#Modulated_continuous-wave
Overall, I think it's an interesting implementation, but I felt the tone of the video did not match the nature of the product. The video feels produced towards something with more breadth and importance than essentially a contractor tool. Not that I'm downplaying what Senic built, but the presentation gives off "toddler in a business suit" aesthetic.
Having said that, the implementation looks great.
I think the video does a great job of making them seem to take their product seriously. If enough people walk away with a similar impression, it will allow the company to expand within the market and be taken seriously in their new endeavors as well.
Looking at the spec, it seems that this tool has all the necessary bits inside to compete with Leica tools. Yet the ads is very silent on all that.
IMO I think they neglected the software side when designing their gismo ( by mistake or by strategy ). Now they hype it up with tech guys, so that one of us will eventually create a few killer apps for their hardware so they can compete against Leica.
99$ for a bluetooth enabled, fully featured laser measurer but with a SDK instead of great interface ? Well I guess it is working, count me in.
The thing is, these guy's aren't 500 pound gorillas. I suspect even with funding, they're struggling to make ends meet. That's the point at which they should be using more targeted advertising to get their product out.
For example, someone is looking for measuring tape on Google via their iPhone. That is their ideal customer. Now give them an ad to click on and sell them on your product, get them to order one. They've just aquired a customer at the fraction of the cost they would have in conventional media.
I see startups on here all the time that try to revolutionize an industry by doing things differently, but they'll take over their advertising techniques down to the detail, advertising techniques which are completely unsuited for a company at their position.
That said, I found it refreshing and pleasant to watch and charming in its innocence and the depth of its ambition.
BLE is already used in devices like the Pebble Watch. If you are interested in hacking with a BLE device, check out the SensorTag[2] from TI. Its a tiny $25 board that contains a whopping six sensors:
* IR temperature Sensor (contactless temperature measurement)
* Humidity Sensor
* Pressure Sensor
* 3-axis Accelerometer
* Gyroscope
* Magnetometer
They also provide example iOS and android source code. You can download the iOS app in the app store.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_low_energy
[1] http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluet...
Look what tech innovation has done to my expectations of products :(
Room scanning point cloud with Kinect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhg3_ZgRK68
Boiler Room Point Cloud: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1l0X46rOAU
Point cloud of living room: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6eRG3Q27Lw
Also your website is being rendered very strangely.
But sell a $30 device for $149 and you can make much more money per customer. Much easier to build a sustainable business that way.
Still, the scans seem promising.
First, this is a great example of creating a solution for a small yet annoying problem people have just come to live with. Second, I really like that they're creating well-designed tools for a very specific niche of customers. This isn't a general purpose device for mass consumption, but for architects, interior designers and the like -- professionals whose industry, like most other industries, does not get enough attention in the way of high-quality, well-designed, 'sexy' solutions. There are a ton of opportunities to provide similar solutions to other markets. Withings, for example, produces a really well-designed and easy-to-use blood pressure cuff [1].
As for the Senic, I wouldn't get one myself, but my parents, who are frequently fixing and renovating things around their home and dabble in real estate, definitely would.
But the homepage is not served via SSL. I assume the actual purchase form submits through SSL, but an active network attacker could change it to submit anywhere they want, and no one would know.
Everyone makes this mistake, because they think of SSL as being just encryption. It's encryption, but it's also integrity. If a page has security-sensitive functionality at all near it, you want integrity, even if the content is public. (Another example: You have a totally static personal site. Why would that possibly demand SSL? Well, say you want to post your GPG public key so people can send you encrypted email. Someone who can intercept mail bound for you might also be able to MITM your site, so you want SSL to ensure people actually get your real key.)
Just serve everything over SSL always, and you won't have to think about this.
One thing I'm not happy about is that I did not see any information about software currently in compatibility testing or plans to support specific software.
I won't be satisfied if the device is delivered and I can't actually use it for anything other than a simple measurement that my current laser distance meter can perform.
If a wall shifts 1 inch across 20 feet, they can build for that, if they have those measurements. But when they are told to make a sink-with-backsplash square, and there's an ugly gap between it and the wall -- well, reworking that tiny gap is almost as expensive as building the table itself.
We're always taking big measurements and bouncing them around to other people, and measuring weird objects and spaces.
Is there any way to measure less precisely using the iPhone's camera? Something about using the gyroscope to get a depth measurement?
You could use infrared with two cameras to do depth measurement like the Kinect and the Leap Motion, but I'm unaware of any smartphones currently doing this.
... or at least, the seed technologies for one.
You use one device to connect with a sensor, much like the special secondary sensors used in the tricorders. Things get uploaded into a larger machine for processing.