Q&A: SiLC Technologies teases the future development of its new Eyeonic Trace solution

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Late last year, SiLC Technologies unveiled its class 1 laser line scanner, the Eyeonic Trace. Capable of dimensioning objects with high levels of accuracy, the solution is an all-in-one inspection and measurement tool, ideal for analysing objects on moving conveyor belts, bucket elevators, and assembly lines.

Following the launch, we discussed the new solution with Dr Mehdi Asghari, Founder and CEO of SiLC Technologies. During our chat, we covered topics including the scalability benefits of the Eyeonic Trace and the inspiration behind the new device. We also explored the complexities surrounding the measurement of moving and immobile objects as well as trends and future predictions surrounding machine vision solutions.

Congratulations on the launch of the Eyeonic Trace. The solution brings a host of benefits including improved measurement accuracy, flexibility, and ambient light immunity. But what would you say is the singular overarching benefit of the technology?

MA: Thank you. We believe Eyeonic Trace provides a major and transformative step forward in its application space. I would say, that beyond enabling a 10X improvement in combined capability over existing solutions, the most important aspect of the technology is its scalability. This means we can enable our customers’ vision as far into the future as they may care to imagine it. To one customer this may mean 10X or even 100X better precision. Other customers may wish to improve image resolution or working speed by 10X or more. While another customer would like to see a longer working range. We are already enabling 3X longer working range vs the best product on the market today, but we can easily go well beyond that, as we have demonstrated with our Perimeter Security product that supports a multi-Km range. 

In the end, customers want to know that we can scale performance and cost vs. volume, the latter is a given for us as we are a silicon-based platform. At the core of our performance scaling capability is a blend of our unique photonics integration platform, which enables 10-100X better optical performance on a single silicon photonics chip, with our proprietary algorithms to process the data, and innovative HW and electronics solutions that enable an end-to-end optimised platform.

In the press release for the Eyeonic Trace, the solution is described as SiLC Technologies’ “first turnkey, fully integrated product.” What inspired the company to tackle this technology type, and why now?

MA: We see SiLC as a semiconductor supplier and our original vision was to provide all critical components needed to be a one-stop-shop for coherent imaging. The idea was to operate like NVIDIA or Broadcom and enable system integrators through close collaboration to develop application-specific end-solutions with our components. We are still doing that; however, coherent imaging is a new and highly specialised field, and it takes a mix of many different disciplines and skills to develop such products. Not every customer has these capabilities and even when they do, such collaborations can take time. SiLC has worked hard to accumulate all these skills and capabilities. The inspiration for Eyeonic Trace came from a common denominator in customer requests for a product that is highly differentiated and could serve many applications. 

The answer to why now, is simple. Because we could and we felt it helps our collaborative customers too, by providing a generic reference design to start from and build upon. 

What challenges arise from producing a solution capable of measuring moving objects compared to immobile ones?

MA: The best way to measure the radial velocity of objects in real-time is to use the doppler shift in the frequency (or wavelength) of light when it reflects off moving objects. This shift is proportional to the radial velocity of the object and works similarly to radar. The difference is that the frequency of the electromagnetic wave used in LiDAR is over 1000 times smaller than radar and that gives LiDAR the ability to offer a similar order of magnitude better resolution (>1000). This means we can offer very high-resolution images with very accurate velocity data on a per-pixel basis in real-time. 

Now, measuring the doppler shift in the frequency of light when it reflects off objects is very hard. It requires complex systems consisting of a significant number of high-precision optical components. Achieving a cost-effective, robust and scalable solution for such complex optical systems is not easy. Existing photonic integration platforms are developed for digital communication and simply do not have the required level of performance for an analogue imaging system with an orders-of-magnitude more challenging link budget. This is where SiLC comes in. We have a unique integration platform that has been developed and optimised from the ground up for coherent imaging and sensor applications. It offers 10-100X better performance across a broad range of critical parameters. This enables us to offer commercially viable, highly integrated solutions for a broad range of applications, from short-reach requiring down-to-um level precision to multi-km range demanding accurate velocity signatures.  

What industries do you believe would benefit the most from adopting the Eyeonic Trace?

We are observing major industry trends that Eyeonic Trace is uniquely positioned to enable. Let’s take a moment and look at these trends first. The COVID pandemic showed us how vulnerable our logistics ecosystem was. We also experienced how hard recovery was due to the lack of workers. In addition, 20 years of systematic drops in the working-age population, due to declining birth rates, was compounded by baby boomers retiring in large numbers post-pandemic. This has resulted in a huge effort to automate the warehouse and logistics industries. Another major trend is onshoring of manufacturing back to the US / Europe. But the same labour-intensive manufacturing processes cannot be imported back. Significant high-precision automation is required. These major trends are driving the demand for exceptional vision capabilities, beyond what exists today, and we are here to make that possible.  

Since we’re at the beginning of a new year, do you have any predictions regarding technological developments we might see in machine vision, industrial automation, or inspection and measurement solutions in the next five years?

MA: I believe that the availability of high-quality, high-precision vision systems like Eyeonic Trace, combined with the broader and more effective use of AI, will fuel the growth of automation and autonomous solutions across multiple industries to gain momentum. 

If you think about it, our AI and ML technologies are getting on par with what humans can do for many applications. Our robotics technology is also proving as effective and dexterous as human mechanical movements. What has limited the deployment of these technologies in the physical world, outside the controlled factory environments, has been the lack of effective, human-like vision. It is our mission to address this and remove this last boundary. This will enable machines to play a growing role in our society and life, which is very timely as otherwise, the continuous drop in the working-age population and shortage of skilled labour will force a drop in the GDP growth of most developed countries.

Are there any areas where we could see the Eyeonic Trace develop in the future?

MA: Yes, we have big plans for Eyeonic Trace and see it as the first generation of a large family of products to come. The first and easiest area to improve is precision. We can easily enhance the depth precision offered by Trace by 10X. In fact, even 100X is within reach. This will transform the inspection automation industry as well as high-precision manufacturing. Another area of focus is on image resolution, which is readily enabled by our integration platform. This will allow for enhanced efficiency and productivity across multiple applications as well as enabling new ones. We also plan to increase the range of Trace and allow for more applications, especially outdoors.  Our technology is not impacted by ambient light and is completely eye-safe, making it ideal for outdoor use.