High Tech Campus based Yado-VR does not really do that much with VR (Virtual Reality). In the past half year the company has been working on 3D-models of cities, buildings and other objects through the use of Lidar-technology. Those models, then can be used for Virtual and Augmented Reality purposes.
The direction the company will take, is yet to be decided, according to founder Anjo de Heus. De Heus is currently talking to a selection of parties about Yado-VR’s future. “We can generate our models faster than the competition, that is why we others have taken an interest in us.”
Lidar-technology uses mobile, maakt gebruik van mobiele, terrestrial or airborne camera-technology to visualize objects. The work Yado-VR generally does with the use of Lidar can be seen in 3D-models of cities per example. Yet, slowly, the technology is finding a way to a new market; that of the autonomous car.
Automotive Industry
In the beginning of October, de Heus sat down with one of Germany’s big car makers. Soon after, his mailbox was filled with contract offers.
According to de Heus, the automotive industry is currently acting the same as the internet industry has been for a while. “Large companies are buying smaller ones in order to come across the holy grail of the industry.”
In automotive, that holy grail lies in finding the neccesary technology to develop the self-driving car. Something that, depending on legislation, will be happening in the next three to five years according to de Heus.
“The automotive industry seems to be in a shopping spree. We are in the right market, at the right time.”
3D-Models
Origanally the company was not looking at the the automotive industry as a potential market. “All we did was make 3D-models of cities, which we will still do. Currently we are working at a model of Eindhoven and we have done work on a project in Singapore.”
Take a look at the 3D-model of High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
In Singapore, the model is used to measure the decrease of the city, which sinks a few inches per day due to the removal of ground water over the years. “Our model is accurate to a few centimetres and can be pulled over the city on a daily basis to measure. Also, a new model can be generated every few hours. Which makes it easy to measure the movement on a daily basis.”
Chip
That accuracy and speed have made Yado-VR interesting to carmakers. That started when the company started to enrich the data that is no used in applications such as Google Streetview. “Worldwide, a just a handful of companies work on processing this data. Wij have joined one of them and are applying our technology to help them in processing the data, which means that now the images are more than just a panoramic image. We have created the possibillity to take a peak behind the picture and look at it in 3D.”
Read more about Virtual Reality here.
Finally, a step was taken to help develop the self-driving car. Several large carbuilders came to Yado-VR to ask if its technology could be burned onto a chip, which would be implemented in the car of the future.
“That chip will make sure the car will be able to drive itself in the near future by analyzing its environment and make a real-time registration through a sattelite connection. If a tree falls down across the road, the chip will take notice.”
Right market, right time
An indication of the car-industries readiness for developing a self-driving car became clear when de Heus sat down with a large carmaker in October. “They just invested 300 Million Euro on a department which is exclusevely looking into working on a secure and safe autonomous car.”
According to de Heus, Yado-VR, a company he founded just a half a year ago, will be presented with some ‘very interesting situations’ in the near future. Which will help the company progress both technically and financially. “The automotive industry seems to be in a shopping spree. We are in the right market, at the right time.”