We’re ready to start mass producing our devices and we’re looking for Indiegogo supporters to back our campaign to raise the funds we need to bring Persee to the world.

A human standing at 6m distance can be clearly be distinguished in the
depth image (left) and color image (right) from the wall behind her at 8m distance.

Our mission is to create intelligent technologies for every human, everywhere.

For computers to be intelligent, they need more than the ability to make sense of the world around them—they need to see the world in 3D. And for intelligent computing to flourish, excellent 3D cameras that are affordably priced and universally available will be a necessity.

That’s why our team at Orbbec has spent the past three years getting 3D right—perfecting our Astra family of 3D cameras and designing Orbbec Persee.

We believe that in the future, it will be hard to remember a time when computers didn’t have 3D cameras.

It’s great to see a company that has been working with developers from day one. From the little things, like power over USB, having a built-in quarter-inch mount, to the really important things like being completely cross-platform, providing high quality depth data, and avoiding ambiguous legal restrictions, they’ve done everything right. This is the successor to the Kinect.

Kyle McDonald
Interactive Artist

This Orbbec device could lead to a new golden age of open source 3D hacking. It puts 3D scanning and body tracking within the reach of designers, students, artists, and creative coders of all types. I can’t wait to use it in my own projects and to see what the community does with it.

Greg Borenstein
NYU ITP; MIT Media Lab;
Author, “Making Things See: 3D Vision with Kinect, Processing, Arduino, and MakerBot”

Orbbec Persee and Astra cameras will be the standard for DepthKit volumetric filmmaking, and any creative project using the depth data aesthetic.

James George
Co-founder of Specular.cc. Creator of DepthKit.

For museum installations, an integrated 3D camera-computer like Persee will lead to faster development, more stable installations, and happier clients. This is something I’ve been waiting for and look forward to using very soon!

Phoenix Perry
Goldsmiths, University of London

At last, there’s going to be a handy depth device out there made by ‘one of us’. All the other hardware suppliers have distinctly opaque engineering departments. But Orbbec comes from people who truly understand open development from the inside out, with an engaged understanding of how to develop something like this for the community with an eye to the future of developing with depth devices.

Elliot Woods
Artist, Kimchi and Chips Studio

The cross-platform compatibility across operating systems, backward compatibility with OpenNI, and easy portability are solutions to the nagging problems for the creative depth-sensing community.

Ellen Pearlman
Director and Curator,
Volumetric Society of New York

This feels like the “Impossible Project” for depth cameras was made possible. I’m thrilled to see OpenNI-compatible, cross-platform hardware back on the market. And anybody who’s played with a Raspberry Pi and PiCam can imagine the possibilities offered by a fully-programmable standalone version.

Nick Fox-Gieg
Animator

What I love about Orbbec is they are thinking about the problems they are solving with a long term view. Sure, they are developing amazing 3D cameras, yet they’re doing a bunch more than that. They have also designed their own 3D chip, are developing an SDK, and  have their own manufacturing line so they can control cost and ensure device availability. Orbbec understands that vision based tech isn’t just about the hardware, it’s about the whole ecosystem and the systems that power the hardware.

Dr. Neil Roodyn
Director, nsquared

Every project involves risk and encounters challenges. We’ve done our best to minimize the risks. Here’s a timeline of everything we’ve done so far to make sure these products are a success:
l  Does the product work yet?

Yes! We already have a working product. We’ve been developing this technology for three years with an incredibly talented and smart team. Our 3D sensor is ready for developers, and in fact some of our early partners have already been testing and using the sensors for several months.

l  Can you actually mass-produce these? Can you ship on time?

Yes! We have already invested a great deal into establishing manufacturing lines dedicated to mass producing our building our sensors. That’s why we’re ready to ship the Astra cameras immediately after the campaign ends. The Astra Pro and Persee devices need a little more time to prepare for their manufacturing, but we are confident that we can produce and ship those products to our Indiegogo backers on schedule.

l  Are your products certified for sale?

Yes! The Astra camera already has approval from FCC, CE, IC, and CB, and is ready to ship world-wide.

The cameras inside Astra Pro and Persee are mostly the same components as in Astra, and the individual components that make up the computer in Persee have already passed certifications when used in other products. With our experience certifying Astra, we are confident the remaining certifications will be no problem.

l  I heard this type of camera uses a laser. Is that safe?

Yes! The IR projection module uses an infrared laser; however, the laser is very low power (class 1, similar to a common laser pointer) and the laser light is passed through a proprietary set of optics including a diffraction grating. This causes the light to be spread out over a very large area, which means the light is safe to the eye at any distance.

Just to make it even safer, especially around children, we have added a proximity safety sensor to all of our 3D cameras. The safety sensor is located next to the IR projector. If it detects a face-sized object within 0.2m, it will shut off the laser until the object goes away. Legally, we are well within the laser and light safety requirements, but we went beyond those just to ensure everyone’s safety.

l  Manufacturing is complicated. What if there are supply problems or component shortages?

We have worked hard to build our supply chain with reliable component vendors in multiple countries. We also own our own production lines, which gives us complete control over the production process and timeline and the quality and cost of our product. Even so, there are unforeseeable risks, such as natural disasters or other events that could disrupt the supply chain. To handle this, we have backup vendors for every key component. Moreover, we own all of our reference designs and can easily find new suppliers that can fulfill our needs.

l  There are lots of patents out there. Do you have any legal risks?

We designed and developed all of our hardware and software in-house and have several patents pending on our products. During our three years of research and development that went into our 3D cameras, we developed significant improvements upon the state-of-the-art of 3D sensing and reconstruction. All of this means that we have created and own unique inventions and intellectual property that are defensible to any challenge.