Orbbec Partners with Microsoft on New Indirect Time of Flight Depth-Sensing Camera Models

3D vision specialist Orbbec has announced a partnership with Microsoft to build a new family of depth-sensing cameras built around the latter company's indirect time of flight (iToF) sensing technology, first seen in the HoloLens 2 augmented reality (AR) headset.

“Orbbec devices built with Microsoft’s iToF technology use the same depth camera module as [the] Azure Kinect Developer Kit and offer identical operating modes and performance," claims Orbbec's Amit Banerjee of the devices his company has developed while working with Microsoft. "Developers can effortlessly migrate their existing applications to Orbbec's cameras by using the API [Application Programming Interface] bridge provided as part of their SDK."

The company has announced three devices in its launch line-up, each with a particular focus. The Femto Bolt is the smallest of the three, designed as a direct production-ready alternative to the Azure Kinect Developer Kit and boasting high-dynamic range (HDR) support on the visible-light RGB camera sensor. The Femto Mega is a beefier beast, taking the same cameras and connecting them to a built-in NVIDIA Jetson Nano module for on-device machine learning workloads and includes Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) support. Finally, the Femto Mega I adds an industrial housing rated to IP65 protection against dust and water ingress.

"Since 2021, we’ve collaborated with Orbbec to bring more camera options using Microsoft's iToF depth technology into the market to cater to a broad range of usage scenarios," says Microsoft's Swati Mehta. "The availability of Orbbec's products provide customers with a broad set of choices that make 3D sensing technology accessible globally for a wider range of applications."

The launch comes two years after Intel announced the winding down of its RealSense division, which produced similar depth-sensing cameras powering a range of popular projects. The Azure Kinect Developer Kit, meanwhile, launched four years ago, offering the same iToF depth-sensing technology as had hit the market in the HoloLens 2 alongside a 12-megapixel visible-light camera. Orbbec's new cameras use this same iToF sensor, but a different RGB sensor with a 16:9 aspect ratio to the Kinect DK's 4:3.

More information is available on the Orbbec website, while the Orbbec shop has the Femto Mega listed at $694.99 and the Femto Mega I at $2,099.99; pricing for the Femto Bolt has not been provided.