Intel closes its department around the RealSense cameras, which for many years had produced interesting but hardly implemented solutions on the market. It does not fit the new business model, which is built around the core topics of Intel and supported by the new foundry business.
Introduced at the beginning of 2014, it should take some time before the first solutions could build on Intel's camera with RealSense. Dell tried its hand at first with a tablet, the Venue 8 7840 (test) theoretically offered a wealth of possibilities with the camera, but as is so often the case here, too, there was a great gap between promise and reality. In the end, this was more of a beta test, the camera was hardly usable for customers.
In the years that followed, only a few manufacturers even opted for one of the special camera solutions from Intel; Google's Project Tango was still the biggest figurehead for Intel RealSense. Nevertheless, the development of new products in the departments continued, a mixed reality headset under the code name Project Alloy was supposed to appear, but only survived a few months. Intel's drone department also relies on the technology with problems and RealSense ID was only introduced at the beginning of this year, a further development for more security. The manager Sagi Ben Moshe, who was still advertising at the time, left Intel a few weeks ago – today it is clear why. RealSense was always far removed from the much-advertised “Industry Standard”.
We are winding down our RealSense business and transitioning our computer vision talent, technology and products to focus on advancing innovative technologies that better support our core businesses and IDM 2.0 strategy
Intel
The focus on Core business and the end of excursions to peripheral areas is high on the list under the new CEO Pat Gelsinger, which is why this should not be the last department to be put to the test. RealSense customers should continue to be supported, writes CRN, although their number is only estimated at around a dozen, who also only bought small quantities. Parts of the technologies and research are likely to continue to be used internally, for example in the auto sector, Mobileye has been developing in the last few months and years to want to play a major role in the field of autonomous driving.