OMNIVISION Announces New, Single Intelligent Sensor for Presence Detection, Facial Recognition, and Always-on

By Tiera Oliver

Associate Editor

Embedded Computing Design

June 04, 2024

News

OMNIVISION Announces New, Single Intelligent Sensor for Presence Detection, Facial Recognition, and Always-on

SANTA CLARA, Calif.  OMNIVISION announced the new OV01D1R intelligent CMOS image sensor to address human presence detection (HPD), infrared (IR) facial authentication, and always-on (AON) technology with a single sensing camera – while retaining low power consumption and operating independently from the laptop’s RGB camera.

Biometric authentication and HPD are becoming increasingly common in laptops due to the need for privacy and the convenience of immediate and touch-free login. HPD has traditionally been powered by AON streaming from the RGB sensor. However, the HPD is disabled when the RGB sensor is blocked by the physical privacy shutter.

“OMNIVISION has solved this problem by implementing a completely new sensor design involving the first-ever integrated camera solution: mono-IR + AON. Even when the RGB sensor is blocked by the physical privacy shutter, the HPD and facial recognition features can still be achieved by the separate OV01D sensor. The device maintains ultra-low-power streaming for AON while the 2-micron (µm) pixel has a high performance in terms of sensitivity and MTF (modulation transfer function), allowing it to maintain the HPD and facial authentication functions,” said Jason Chiang, staff marketing manager computing, OMNIVISION. “In addition, cost and module design complexity are reduced due to our ability to combine the capabilities of three to four sensors into a single device. We are excited to see the OV01D1R sensor implemented into 2025 model laptops and beyond.” 

The OV01D1R features a mono-IR color filter array that supports HPD and facial recognition in a single sensing camera. Based on PureCel® pixel technology, the OV01D1R is a raw 1-megapixel (MP), low-power (4.7mW@3fps) image sensor in a 1/6.13-inch optical format. It delivers 1280 x 720 resolution at 30 frames per second (fps). Applications for the new sensor include cameras embedded into notebooks, tablets, monitors, webcams, and doorbell and home security cameras.

The OV01D1R is available for sampling now, and it will be in mass production in Q4 2024. 

For more information, visit: www.ovt.com

Tiera Oliver, Associate Editor for Embedded Computing Design, is responsible for web content edits, product news, and constructing stories. She also assists with newsletter updates as well as contributing and editing content for ECD podcasts and the ECD YouTube channel. Before working at ECD, Tiera graduated from Northern Arizona University where she received her B.S. in journalism and political science and worked as a news reporter for the university’s student led newspaper, The Lumberjack.

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