Soni announced AS-DT1The world’s smallest and lightest small precision lidar depth sensor.
Sony AS-DT 1 Lidar Deppth sensor, except for 29 to 29 by 31 millimeters (1.14 to 1.22 inches 1.22 inches 1.14), depends on the sophisticated miniature and optical lens technologies from Sony’s Machine Vision Industrial Cameras. The device uses “Direct Time of Flight” (DTOF) Lidar technology and has a Sony single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) image sensor.
As the Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation describes, a spade sensor promises extraordinary photon detection efficiency, ensuring that the sensor can also detect a very weak photon emitted from the light source and reflect an object. This efficiency is important, because the reflected light is fine how the lidar works. Light detection and Lidar measures the distance by measuring the time taken for photons emitted to bounce an object and return to the sensor. The more efficient the image sensor is in terms of photon efficiency, the better its accuracy.
Compared to the CMOS image sensor, the photographers who are familiar, which measures the amount of light that detect light that accumulates inside the individual pixel on a specified time limit, can detect a single photon – spade sensors digitally count digital particles without accurate or noisy issues. Spad image sensors are fundamentally different and much more efficient than CMOS sensors.
So why do not all cameras use spade sensors? While they are very good in measuring single photons, they are not well suited to measuring too much light, which almost everyone wants to capture with a traditional camera. They are also expensive, not high resolution, and are permissible. It was big news when Canon unveiled one-megapixel spade sensor Less than five years ago, to help tell where the technology is in terms of resolution.
Sony does not say much about specific Spad sensors in its new AS-DT1 Lidar depth sensor. Sony’s sensor catalog does not have many spade sensors, but there are some that are Small And Are relatively less pixels,
However, Sony is high on its new AS-DT1 device. Due to its small size and impressive spade sensor, the company says that it is “ideal for applications where space and weight loss is paramount, including drones, robotics and more.” It is appropriate to suspect that the device can also be helpful in self-driving cars. Light scenarios challenging any situation requires very accurate depth and distance measurement, which is well suited to something like AS-DT1.
“AS-DT 1 can measure distance with low-opposite subjects and objects, which are more difficult to detect with other methods. It enables the accurate measurement of distance in various environments, such as retail stores, where various objects, including people and fixtures, are expected,” Sony explains.
“In addition to its ability to correctly measure the distance of both indoors and outside, the compact of the sensor, light design and integration in a wide range of rigid aluminum housing equipment, such as food service robots in restaurants, autonomous mobile robots in warehouses, and drones used for inspection and survey.”
Sony AS-DT1 can measure at different distances with extraordinary accuracy. For example, Sony claims that it can measure the distance of 10 meters (32.8 ft) away with a margin of five centimeters (about two inches) inside the house. The company further claims that the AS-DT1 is better than competing with imaging equipment when working with low-opposite subjects, low reflections and floating objects.
The AS-DT1 can exit 40 meters (131.2 ft) inside the house and up to 20 meters (65.6 ft) under bright summer conditions, which Sony says that “may be challenging when inspecting the infrastructure such as the bridge, highway and dam”. How valuable drones are for inspection of its small size and infrastructure are a particularly attractive use for AS-DT1.
Sony hopes that AS-DT1 will be available in spring 2026. A prototype will be launched to the public in Houston, Texas, May 20-22, 2025. It is a very special type of camera, but it is always interesting to see the latest advice in image sensor technology.
Image Credit: Sony
