[1] https://daniel.lawrence.lu/blog/2024-08-31-customizing-my-li...
[1] https://daniel.lawrence.lu/blog/2024-08-31-customizing-my-li...
It isn't however opaque for optical glass (since the LIDAR has to shine through optical glass in the first place) so it hits your camera lens, goes straight through, and slams the sensor.
Sorry if this is a silly question, I honestly don’t have the greatest understanding of EM.
> If you have many lidars around, the beams from each 905 nm lidar will be focused to a different spot on your retina, and you are no worse off than if there was a single lidar. But if there are many 1550 nm lidars around, their beams will have a cumulative effect at heating up your cornea, potentially exceeding the safety threshold.
This SoC may actually have Linux drivers.
Anyway, I've been using it on my Macbook Air M2 and it works fine for my use case [3]. Pretty smooth.
[1] https://rosenzweig.io/blog/aaa-gaming-on-m1.html
[3] https://daniel.lawrence.lu/blog/2024-12-01-asahi-linux-with-...
Anyway, I was too lazy to make it, but it's super neat to see that someone actually made something similar.
Lidar is flawed at the foundational level. There's a reason no living creature on earth evolved it.
[1] https://lidarmag.com/2011/05/21/velodyne-donates-lidar-and-r...
Recently got a Waymo for the first time to take my kids and I from one hotel to another in Phoenix.
- Car pulls up
- I walk up to the trunk as I have a suitcase
- Out of habit, I go to open the trunk by pressing the button under the "handle" (didn't realize you have to unlock the car via the app first)
- My hand moves by the rear trunk laser that is spinning and "whacks" my hand.
Not a big deal but seems like an interesting design choice to place a motorized spinning device right next to where people are going to be reaching to open the trunk.
Likewise with the big spinning lidar on top, which was covered in the older Chrysler Pacificas but externally spinning in the newer Jaguar I-Paces.
[1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waymo_self-driving_c...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamforming
It is possible for the array to produce a concentrated beam into one direction. The software determines when that happens and in what direction.
The eye safety threshold for 850/905 nm is a lot lower than 1550 nm, so they output way less power, but the much better sensitivity of silicon sensors makes up for it partially. You can also squeeze out more range using clever signal processing and a large optical aperture (which allows you to output more light, but since the light is spread out across the aperture, the intensity doesn't exceed the threshold). Typically, the range of 850/905 nm lidars is less than that of 1550 nm lidars though.
On the bright side, due to lower power, there hasn't been any instances (to my knowledge) of 850 nm and 905 nm lidars damaging cameras, whereas at least two different 1550 nm lidars have been known to destroy cameras (Luminar and AEye).
On the Luminar lidar website [1] they proudly advertise "1,000,000x pulse energy of 905nm".
[1] https://www.luminartech.com/technology