The Intel RealSense D421 Depth Module. | Credit: Intel
We had been somewhat shocked in mid-September 2024 with the launch of the entry-level Intel RealSense Depth Module D421. With the latest monetary turmoil and modifications on the firm, there was uncertainty whether or not Intel would proceed to put money into the product line.
Well, at the moment The Robot Report realized extra concerning the plans for the road of depth cameras. Intel is spinning out RealSense as an impartial firm. Intel mentioned this can be achieved within the first half of 2025, with the brand new enterprise being an Intel Capital portfolio firm.
“After ten years of incubation, Intel is unleashing the potential of the Intel RealSense computer vision-AI portfolio in a standalone ICAP portfolio company by the first half of 2025,” Intel mentioned in an announcement to The Robot Report. “We are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for our customers and continue to provide support throughout the process.”
This is all we all know in the meanwhile. We have reached out to Intel to study extra and can cross alongside extra info when it turns into accessible.
RealSense has all the time been a small a part of Intel’s enterprise. It doubtless benefitted from the monetary stability and intensive sources of Intel. Operating inside a tech big’s ecosystem supplied a security web for R&D, in addition to entry to an unlimited community of trade companions.
Will all that maintain true as a standalone firm? Will the brand new RealSense want to lift exterior funding?
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New chapter for RealSense
Intel RealSense depth cameras are a preferred alternative for builders of cellular robots and industrial pick-and-place robots. Intel particulars some robotics clients on its web site. One instance is ANYbotics‘ ANYmal quadruped. According to Intel, every ANYmal robotic has six Intel RealSense D435 modules that work collectively to create an elevation map that helps the robotic navigate round a web site and traverse troublesome terrain, together with climbing stairs.
How will this new independence have an effect on the arrogance of its present clients? We’ll have to attend and see.
We do know that is yet one more new chapter in what’s been a three-and-a-half-year saga full of twists and turns. In August 2021, Intel surprised the robotics trade by announcing it was shutting down RealSense to deal with core companies. This even caught inner RealSense leaders abruptly on the time.
However, Intel shortly reversed course, opting to maintain RealSense alive however with a lowered lineup.
The robotics trade has lengthy been using a curler coaster when looking for low-cost, high-quality depth sensing. With RealSense spinning out as a standalone firm, this narrative takes one other shocking flip. RealSense is free of Intel’s restructuring priorities, however independence will most definitely introduce new challenges.
This definitely isn’t Intel’s first time spinning off an organization. In December 2024, after going through declining income, Intel introduced it could spin off its foundry enterprise. Mobileye, an autonomous car developer, spun off from Intel in October 2022. Intel acquired Mobileye in 2017 for $15.3 billion, and on the time it was the biggest acquisition ever of an Israeli firm. Mobileye was based in 1999.
Intel started producing depth-sensing merchandise below its Perceptual Computing division in 2013. Intel rebranded this group as Intel RealSense in 2014.