We had been a bit shocked in mid-September 2024 with the launch of the entry-level Intel RealSense Depth Module D421. With the current monetary turmoil and adjustments on the firm, there was uncertainty whether or not Intel would proceed to spend money on the product line.
Effectively, right this moment The Robotic Report discovered extra in regards to the plans for the road of depth cameras. Intel is spinning out RealSense as an impartial firm. Intel mentioned this will likely be accomplished 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 pc vision-AI portfolio in a standalone ICAP portfolio firm by the primary half of 2025,” Intel mentioned in a press release to The Robotic Report. “We’re dedicated to making sure a clean transition for our clients and proceed to offer assist all through the method.”
That is all we all know for the time being. We have now reached out to Intel to study extra and can go alongside extra data when it turns into obtainable.
RealSense has at all times been a small a part of Intel’s enterprise. It seemingly benefitted from the monetary stability and intensive assets of Intel. Working inside a tech large’s ecosystem offered a security web for R&D, in addition to entry to an enormous community of business companions.
Will all that maintain true as a standalone firm? Will the brand new RealSense want to boost outdoors funding?
Register right this moment to avoid wasting 40% on convention passes!
New chapter for RealSense
Intel RealSense depth cameras are a preferred selection for builders of cell robots and industrial pick-and-place robots. Intel particulars some robotics clients on its web site. One instance is ANYbotics‘ ANYmal quadruped. In accordance with 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 boldness of its present clients? We’ll have to attend and see.
We do know that is one more new chapter in what’s been a three-and-a-half-year saga crammed with twists and turns. In August 2021, Intel shocked the robotics business by saying it was shutting down RealSense to concentrate on core companies. This even caught inside RealSense leaders without warning on the time.
Nonetheless, Intel shortly reversed course, opting to maintain RealSense alive however with a lowered lineup.
The robotics business has lengthy been driving a curler coaster when trying to find low-cost, high-quality depth sensing. With RealSense spinning out as a standalone firm, this narrative takes one other stunning flip. RealSense is free of Intel’s restructuring priorities, however independence will most actually introduce new challenges.
This actually isn’t Intel’s first time spinning off an organization. In December 2024, after going through declining income, Intel introduced it will spin off its foundry enterprise. Mobileye, an autonomous automobile 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 beneath its Perceptual Computing division in 2013. Intel rebranded this group as Intel RealSense in 2014.