Start-up showcases bulb camera for advancing autonomous tech

Berlin-based start-up Autoaid is exhibiting for the first time its patent pending automotive bulb camera. It says the simple camera system can be retrofitted to virtually any car that will enable collection and analysis of huge quantities of video data from real traffic events.

The data is essential for driving further development for autonomous vehicle technology. It says that using the new vehicle lamp, drivers will also benefit from cutting edge assistance systems. From the large automobile manufacturers through the tech corporations to the automotive start-ups few future-related topics are given as much attention in the automotive industry as autonomous driving.

Autoaid states that however, before the development can be advanced to the stage where driving is fully autonomous, huge quantities of video material of traffic events are needed to enable the autonomous driving systems to be appropriately trained.

The automotive bulb camera is a high-resolution camera which can be integrated into a halogen or LED automotive lamp and is used in conventional car headlight lamp holders, for instance H7 or H4. The system works quite simply on a plug-and-play basis, and further adaptation of the car for the purpose of retrofitting is not necessary.

The start-up states that because of its simple nature the original visual appearance of the vehicle is not altered. This is a further component of its new telematics platform, wherein the cameras record all traffic events and send them, coupled with the real driving behaviour such as steering, braking and accelerating, as well as with the geo-data, to its servers.

The data is then processed through its object recognition software which identifies the traffic participants, traffic lights, signs and much more. The results then can be used by the industry wherein the data is detailed, along with being almost inexhaustible in terms of volume of data for the driving behaviour of millions of car drivers. From the point of view of the end customer the solution also offers attractive retro-fittable security systems such as a lane-keeping assistant or a collision warning system.