UK Share Net - Tricorder

Tricorder - by zho, 20th April '99 (Part 2 of 3)

HANDHELD PRODUCTS
Static products are a developmental stepping stone on the way to handheld products. Tricorder have a handheld scanner at prototype stage, and this too uses 2 small digital cameras and a semiconductor laser. In this product, information on the position of the scanner is derived from silicon gyroscopes. This technology has been developed by British Aerospace (Tricorder's major development partner) for use in inertial guidance systems, and Tricorder have an exclusive licence.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE - HANDHELD PRODUCTS

* The silicon gyros obviate the need for the mechanical linkage on which many competing technologies rely, and it is this which creates the possibility of a truly hand-held scanner.

* They also circumvent the scaling problem which leads some companies to make a range of similar scanners, each of which can only scan a limited range of object sizes (say coins, shoes, large pots, and so on) with a decidedly low upper limit - for example, there would be no chance of scanning something the size of a car with such equipment.

* Tricorder claim that scanners based on the flexibility of silicon will be smaller and more reliable than mechanical systems, and cheaper at sufficient volumes.

SOFTWARE-ONLY PRODUCT
The launch of a software version of the technology is planned for the end of next year, and this will enable the home user to combine 2 or more 2D digital photographs taken with an ordinary digital camera into a 3D graphic. The rewards for being the first company to market such a product to the market would be considerable, and this means that it is likely that other, larger, companies are working on the same problem. Having said this, my reading is that despite its size, Tricorder is streets ahead in registration technology, and so being the first to market with a low-cost consumer product appears to be a real possibility.

MARKETS
Visage was beta tested at centres of excellence including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, and this immediately points to 2 possible markets.

1) One market is that for anyone wishing to record objects for insurance, educational or marketing purposes. Images can be stored on an interactive CD-ROM, they can be positioned in virtual environments, they can be made available over the world wide web. At the V&A, for example, the Visage was used to make 3D photographs of artefacts to enable research access over the internet. Web usage of 3D graphics is predicted to expand enormously over the next few years and this leaves Tricorder positioned to capitalise on a boom area.

2) At the Queen Victoria Hospital, Visage was used in reconstructive surgery for cancer and burns victims. Writing in the Times (4/11/98), Ray Hatley said that:

Oral and maxillofacial surgery deals with a wide variety of head and neck conditions arising from congenital or development deformities, trauma or tumours.

In the past surgeons have had no option but to rely on 2-D photographs to help them to re-design a victim's features. Although photographs were largely superseded by the first generation of 3-D cameras the early devices were unwieldy and time consuming to operate. [The consultant in charge of the Visage 3D project] Peter Ward Booth says "A single 3-D image could take several hours to create and relied on a single camera rotating around the subject to capture a full 3-D image."

There are other medical applications, and these include:

* Prosthetics. Conventional methods of obtaining the impression of a site for a prosthesis cause compression of tissue, and this creates inaccuracy.

* Wound healing: Tricorder's measurement software accurately measures volume changes to show the effectiveness of drugs in reducing post-operative swelling, without exposing patients to harmful radiation.

* Cleft palates: Visage can be used to monitor progress after successive operations. The data is of specific interest to maxillofacial surgeons who need to audit their surgical procedures.

* Telemedicine: This is an umbrella term which embraces remote consultation and diagnosis, and storage and transmission of electronic patient records (EPRs). Remote consultation enables far more efficient use of specialist time and reduces high administration costs. EPRs are of enormous interest to health authorities and pharmaceutical companies because they allow rapid data-mining and efficient epidemiology. Telemedicine is predicted to grow enormously over the next few years, and will receive an additional boost in the UK from additional NHS funding recently announced by the government.

Other markets include:

3) Film and Broadcast:

Both static and handheld products capture information in a point cloud representation - a kind of unordered 3 dimensional bitmap. Post-processing using NURBs algorithms transforms this into a wireframe: visually, this equates to the effect you would expect by shrink wrapping graph paper over the scanned object. Wireframes contain comparatively little data and can be manipulated at high speeds for animation.

Writing about prospects for a professional handheld product, the AIM prospectus anticipates that "3 major Hollywood film production companies will enter into arrangements with the Company to evaluate the beta versions of this product." The November offer document says that the Company intends to appoint distributors for this market within the next 12 months. This market has been targeted because it is "the largest in the 3D sector and is technologically the most advanced."

4) Forensics and Security:

Tricorder and BSB Forensics have combined to offer Visage to UK police authorities for the creation of 3D photofits. 3D images are easier to recognise than 2D images, which are often restricted to front and side views. Similarly, a 3D image can be rotated in a web browser to match the angle of a CCTV shot which will usually have been taken from above. Conversely, the technology will eventually allow combination of 2 or more 2D photographs taken from CCTV footage into a 3D image, although the Company press release suggests that this is a couple of years away.

5) Home and semi-professional use:

The directors hope that economies of scale deriving from technology based on software and silicon will eventually lower the price of static and handheld products to those of standard peripherals. In the mean time, products may be of interest to small business or semi-professional users.

A mass-market software version of the technology which combines standard 2D digital pictures has been discussed above.

6) CAD/CAM:

One of the main application areas for existing scanning technologies is in reverse engineering. Objects are scanned and the resulting files can be manipulated in a computer: these transforms may then be used to drive computer-controlled lathes. Initially, Tricorder say that they would have to compete on price rather than performance, but performance advantages already mentioned include ease of use, speed of capture, absence of mechanical linkage, absence of scaling problem with handheld product, and ability to capture freeform geometry.

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