자율주행, 스마트시티뿐만 아니라 웰니스 사업에서도 레이더 기술을 접목시키며 기존 레이더의 이미지를 탈피하는 데 앞장서고 있는 비트센싱의 기술과 레이더 시장의 전망에 대해 물었다.
“The era of autonomous driving based on imaging radar is coming”
Bitsensing radar technology draws attention to mobility, smart cities, and wellness
“We will solve problems in all aspects of life by going beyond the limitations of existing radars”
[Editor's Note] Bitsensing, which won the Innovation Award based on its radar technology at CES 2022, was also selected as the 'Top Rising Autonomous Vehicle Technology Startup of 2023'. At NextRise 2023 held at COEX on June 1, Bitsensing set up a booth in the Future Tech sector and attracted attention by showcasing its globally recognized radar technology. Bitsensing is leading the way in breaking away from the image of existing radar by incorporating radar technology not only in autonomous driving and smart cities, but also in the wellness business. Accordingly, our magazine met with Lee Jae-eun, CEO of Bitsensing, and asked about Bitsensing's technology that is innovating radar and the outlook for the radar market.
▲Lee Jae-eun, CEO of Bitsensing
■ Please tell us about Bitsensing and its technical capabilities.
Bitsensing is a radar tech startup.
Ensures stable radar sensing unaffected by weather. It is important that radar always shows the same performance even in environments such as fog, rain, and yellow dust.
It is a complementary relationship with the camera, which has clear limitations, and I think it is the optimal sensor combination of radar and camera.
Bitsensing is already doing sensor fusion with radar and cameras in the infrastructure sector.
For automotive applications, we are supporting better sensor fusion by combining radar with existing proven camera solutions.
■ What is the difference between radar mounted on vehicles and radar mounted on infrastructure?
There are also frequency regulations that require frequencies to be separated and used, and automobiles have more precise requirements.
As we drive on the road, we are increasingly demanding higher specifications, such as the need to distinguish objects from a distance.
The frequency band is moving towards higher and higher frequencies, and as the frequency increases the wavelength gets shorter, so the sensors get smaller.
A smaller wavelength is advantageous for automobiles, due to autonomy in mounting location, etc.
As the number of sensors increases, both customers and automakers are concerned about where to mount them.
Sensors for autonomous driving use wide bandwidths in high-frequency bands, while infrastructure is fixed.sp;
It is fixed and uses the 24GHz ISM band frequency band, so the long-distance viewing specifications are actually similar.
What sets Bitsensing apart is that its infrastructure radar performs sensor fusion directly up to the camera, so it can do tasks that radar alone cannot do.
We approach this from a city-wide perspective so that even sensor-less vehicles can drive more safely based on data and be free from situations such as traffic jams.
We developed infrastructure radar first, and then developed autonomous driving radar because we thought autonomous driving would start from this space once the infrastructure was ready.
Even at autonomous driving levels 2 and 2.5, high-spec radars are required, which has laid the foundation for Bitsensing's technology to be applied to automotive radars in the market more quickly.
■ Bitsensing claims that it can identify and detect 256 vehicles traveling at 320 km/h in 8 lanes, but the amount of data being processed is likely to be enormous.
The amount of data processed internally is quite large, as it also includes camera data.
If all data is uploaded to a server like a CCTV camera, the communication costs will be enormous.
Bitsensing pursues the concept of having all processing completed on the edge device and then delivering the output.
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Since the huge amount of data only produces results on vehicle location, speed, vehicle type, etc., not much data is actually accumulated, and all processing occurs every 100ms.
■ Are there any projects being promoted with TIMOS, Bitsensing’s C-ITS solution?
In Daegu Metropolitan City, a smart crosswalk project utilizing this is underway, and although it cannot reveal the city yet, four radars will be installed at intersections to simultaneously store information on all vehicles passing through the intersection and provide data that can control traffic lights accordingly.
▲Bitsensing Smart Traffic Infrastructure Solution TIMOS
This is possible because we have been developing and completing the technology to synchronize physically separated sensors since last year.
As these solutions become more widely used and the number of intersections organically combines multi-sensors and single-sensors increases, the area will become a true smart city.
One of the advantages of bitsensing is that it can be applied to different communication methods in different countries and regions because it only handles the sensing part without selecting a communication method.
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Based on these advantages, we are already conducting business in Korea and are also discussing it with Italy and Thailand.
■ What areas do you think need to be studied to advance to more advanced autonomous cooperative driving and autonomous driving?
In automobiles, imaging radar is expected to advance further, which means that radar will begin to differentiate objects.
As this market matures, the era of autonomous driving based on imaging radar is expected to open.
▲Bitsensing 4D imaging radar solution
Additionally, since not all existing vehicles will be converted into autonomous vehicles, a system that can control traffic more efficiently overall is needed.
Bitsensing has argued that infrastructure radar should be used to monitor traffic on all roads, and this has been somewhat accepted.
If we collect and provide data that has never been available before and control traffic lights based on this, it is expected that we will be able to comprehensively manage not only traffic congestion and accidents, but also environmental issues such as exhaust fumes and energy conservation.
t-size:14px;"> ■ At the last NextRise event, Bitsensing also presented a wellness radar solution. I would like to hear more about it.
A wellness solution that doesn't use cameras at all.
Radar data can accurately identify breathing patterns during sleep.
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▲ Beatsensing Wellness Solutions
Beatsensing has been researching breathing analysis during sleep for a long time and has solutions ready to perform some level of sleep analysis.
We are currently conducting internal beta testing, and will conduct public beta testing in 2023.
We have been steadily collecting data from hospitals and sleep labs, and we are not stopping here but are working to secure more data.
Through our efforts so far, we have achieved a certain level of reliability and are gradually increasing the accuracy of sleep analysis.
If we talk more specifically about sleep analysis, there are many breathing patterns that come up, such as breathing problems during sleep, obstructive apnea associated with snoring, and central apnea associated with other diseases.
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After analyzing these, we categorize them and provide a sleep score. Since the data is accumulated every day, the health status is monitored and based on this, we try to check if there are any red flags in health and guide visits to the hospital.
■ What is the role and prospect of radar in the automotive and wellness markets?
In the case of automotive radar, a market for imaging radar that is one step ahead of existing radars is now opening.
There is growing news that the imaging radar market is entering full-scale growth.
Because it is a radar product that did not exist before, the atmosphere is similar to the lidar market 10 years ago.
I think the imaging radar market has a lot of potential for growth and will likely attract a lot of attention.
▲Lee Jae-eun, CEO of Bitsensing Wellness is actually a market I never thought of.
There were doubts about whether it could be attacked with radar, but after trying it out, I judged that there were enough things it could do, and that it could complement the limitations of existing devices, such as the contact problem of having to be in contact with a person.v>
For example, it could perfectly replace wearable devices that you take off while you sleep to charge.
One of the advantages of bit sensing is that it can continuously analyze data without interruption even in an unattended situation.
Furthermore, these advantages also have the potential to enable collaboration with companies that make wearable devices, and there is also an expectation that other unexpected avenues may open up.
■ Please give a word to e4ds readers
Radar Reimagined. This is Bitsensing's tagline.
Accordingly, we will break the image of existing radar and continue to solve problems that can be solved with radar sensing in all aspects of life.
As such, Bitsensing is working to enable many people to benefit from radar technology, so we ask for your continued interest and support for radar.
thank you
