Infrared could cast a light on better computer vision - CNET

We humans get along pretty well seeing colors ranging from blue to red. But a startup is betting that when it's time to endow electronic devices with vision, infrared light will find a place, too.

Infrared light -- just beyond red in the color spectrum but invisible to humans -- is already used in some devices like TV remote controls and the motion sensor for Microsoft's Kinect video game technology. InVisage plans to sell a new image sensor for infrared cameras that the company believes will dramatically improve computer vision.

Infrared sight could revolutionize the way devices interact with us and their surroundings. Drones and self-driving cars could navigate more precisely. Phones could more reliably unlock automatically when we look at them and they scan our eyes' retina. And when interacting with the computer-generated worlds of virtual reality, headsets could keep better track of our hands and arms.

We used wires and punched cards to tell the earliest computers what to do. Keyboard, mice, and touch screens came next, changing computing by making it possible for ordinary people to use them. But for the next wave of computing, where devices understand their surroundings and chart their own course through the world, they'll have to rely on their own senses -- including infrared vision.

"A drone doesn't know how to avoid a tree or power line," said Jess Lee, chief executive of the Menlo Park, Califoia-based startup. "They can't do that without some sort of computer vision system."