Prophesee launches the world's smallest and most power-efficient event-based vision sensor, bringing more intelligence, privacy and safety than ever to consumer Edge-AI devices

PARIS – October 16, 2023 – Prophesee SA, inventor of the world’s most advanced neuromorphic vision systems, today announced the availability of the GenX320 Event-based Metavision sensor, the industry’s first event-based vision sensor developed specifically for integration into ultra-low-power Edge AI vision devices. The fifth generation Metavision sensor, available in a tiny 3x4mm die size, expands the reach of the company’s pioneering technology platform into a vast range of fast-growing intelligent Edge market segments, including AR/VR headsets, security and monitoring/detection systems, touchless displays, eye tracking features, always-on smart IoT devices and many more.

The GenX320 event-based vision sensor builds on Prophesee’s track record of proven success and expertise in delivering the speed, low latency, dynamic range and power efficiency and privacy benefits of event-based vision to a diverse array of applications.

The 320×320 6.3μm pixel BSI stacked event-based vision sensor offers a tiny 1/5” optical format. It has been developed with a specific focus on the unique requirements of efficient integration of innovative event sensing in energy-, compute and size-constrained embedded at-the-edge vision systems. The GenX320 enables robust, high-speed vision at ultra-low power and in challenging operating and lighting conditions.

GenX320 benefits include:

• Low latency µsec resolution timestamping of events with flexible data formatting.
• On-chip intelligent power management modes reduce power consumption to as low as 36uW and enable smart wake-on-events. Deep sleep and standby modes are also featured.
• Easy integrability/interfacing with standard SoCs with multiple integrated event data preprocessing, filtering, and formatting functions to minimize external processing overhead.
• MIPI or CPI data output interfaces offer low-latency connectivity to embedded processing platforms, including low-power microcontrollers and modern neuromorphic processor architectures.
• AI-ready: on-chip histogram output compatible with multiple AI accelerators;
• Sensor-level privacy-enabled thanks to event sensor’s inherent sparse frameless event data with inherent static scene removal.
• Native compatibility with Prophesee Metavision Intelligence, the most comprehensive, free, event-based vision software suite, used by a fast-growing community of 10,000+ users.

“The low-power Edge-AI market offers a diverse range of applications where the power efficiency and performance characteristics of event sensors are ideally suited. We have built on our foundation of commercial success in other application areas and developed this new eventbased Metavision sensor to address the needs of Edge system developers with a sensor that is easy to integrate, configure and optimize for multiple compelling use cases in motion and object detection, presence awareness, gesture recognition, eye tracking, and other high growth areas,” said Luca Verre, CEO and co-founder of Prophesee.

Specific use case potential

• High-speed eye-tracking for foveated rendering for seamless interaction in AR/VR/XR headsets
• Low latency touch-free human-machine interface in consumer devices (TVs, laptops, game consoles, smart home appliances and devices, smart displays and more)
• Smart presence detection and people counting in IoT cameras and other devices
• Ultra-low power always-on area monitoring systems
• Fall detection cameras in homes and health facilities

Availability

The GenX320 is available for purchase from Prophesee and its sales partners. It is supported by a complete range of development tools for easy exploration and optimization, including a comprehensive Evaluation Kit housing a chip on board (COB) GenX320 module, or a compact optical flex module. In addition, Prophesee is offering a range of adapter kits that enable seamless connectivity to a large range of embedded platforms, such as an STM32 MCU, enabling faster time-to-market.

Early adopters

Zinn Labs

“Zinn Labs is developing the next generation of gaze tracking systems built on the unique capabilities of Prophesee’s Metavision event sensors. The new GenX320 sensor meets the demands of eye and gaze movements that change on millisecond timescales. Unlike traditional video-based gaze tracking pipelines, Zinn Labs is able to leverage the GenX320 sensor to track features of the eye with a fraction of the power and compute required for full-blown computer vision algorithms, bringing the footprint of the gaze tracking system below 20 mW. The small package size of the new sensor makes this the first time an event-based vision sensor can be applied to space-constrained head-mounted applications in AR/VR products. Zinn Labs is happy to be working with Prophesee and the GenX320 sensor as we move towards integrating this new sensor into upcoming customer projects.”

Kevin Boyle
CEO & Founder

Xperi

“Privacy continues to be one of the biggest consumer concerns when vision-based technology is used in our products such as DMS and TV services. Prophesee’s event-based Metavision technology enables us to take our ‘privacy by design’ principle to an even more secure level by allowing scene understanding without the need to have explicit visual representation of the scene. By capturing only changes in every pixel, rather than the entire scene as with traditional frame-based imaging sensors, our algorithms can derive knowledge to sense what is in the scene, without a detailed representation of it. We have developed a proof-of-concept demo that demonstrates DMS is fully possible using neuromorphic sensors. Using a 1MP neuromorphic sensor we can infer similar performance as an active NIR illumination 2MP vision sensor-based solution. Going forward, we focus on the GenX320 neuromorphic sensor that can be used in privacy sensitive smart devices to improve user experience.”

Petronel Bigioi
Chief Technology Officer

Ultraleap

“We have seen the benefits of Prophesee’s event-based sensors in enabling hands-free interaction via highly accurate gesture recognition and hand tracking capabilities in Ultraleap’s TouchFree application. Their ability to operate in challenging environmental conditions, at very efficient power levels, and with low system latency enhances the overall user experience and intuitiveness of our touch free UIs. With the new Genx320 sensor, these benefits of robustness, low power consumption, latency and high dynamic range can be extended to more types of applications and devices, including battery-operated and small form factors systems, proliferating hands-free use cases for increased convenience and ease of use in interacting with all sorts of digital content.”

Tom Carter
CEO & Co-founder

ABOUT PROPHESEE

Prophesee is the inventor of the world’s most advanced neuromorphic vision systems.

The company developed a breakthrough Event-Based Vision approach to machine vision. This new vision category allows for significant reductions of power, latency and data processing requirements to reveal what was invisible to traditional frame-based sensors until now. Prophesee’s patented Metavision® sensors and algorithms mimic how the human eye and brain work to dramatically improve efficiency in areas such as autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, IoT, mobile and AR/VR. Prophesee is based in Paris, with local offices in Grenoble, Shanghai, Tokyo and Silicon Valley.

The company is driven by a team of more than 100 visionary engineers, holds more than 50 international patents and is backed by leading international equity and corporate investors including 360 Capital Partners, European Investment Bank, iBionext, Inno-Chip, Intel Capital, Renault Group, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Sinovation, Supernova Invest, Xiaomi.

Learn more: www.prophesee.ai