Omnivision has announced the new OV01D1R intelligent CMOS image sensor, the first sensor for the computing industry to address human presence detection (HPD), infrared (IR) facial authentication and always-on (AON) technology with a single sensing camera – while retaining low power consumption and operating independently from the laptop’s RGB camera.
Biometric authentication and HPD are becoming increasingly common in laptops due to the need for privacy and the convenience of immediate and touch-free login. HPD has traditionally been powered by AON streaming from the RGB sensor. However, the HPD is disabled when the RGB sensor is blocked by the physical privacy shutter.
“Omnivision has solved this problem by implementing a completely new sensor design involving the first-ever integrated camera solution: mono-IR + AON. Even when the RGB sensor is blocked by the physical privacy shutter, the HPD and facial recognition features can still be achieved by the separate OV01D sensor. The device maintains ultra-low-power streaming for AON while the 2-micron (µm) pixel has a high performance in terms of sensitivity and MTF (modulation transfer function), allowing it to maintain the HPD and facial authentication functions,” said Jason Chiang, staff marketing manager computing, Omnivision. “In addition, cost and module design complexity are reduced due to our ability to combine the capabilities of three to four sensors into a single device. We are excited to see the OV01D1R sensor implemented into 2025 model laptops and beyond.”
The OV01D1R features an innovative mono-IR colour filter array that supports both HPD and facial recognition in a single sensing camera. Based on PureCel pixel technology, the OV01D1R is a raw 1-megapixel (MP), low-power (4.7mW@3fps) image sensor in a 1/6.13-inch optical format. It delivers 1280 x 720 resolution at 30 frames per second (fps). Applications for the new sensor include cameras embedded into notebooks, tablets, monitors and webcams, as well as doorbell and home security cameras.
