Incoming hearsay, but I've heard conflicting things from RealSense integrators on what Intel is actually doing with this product over the longer term. Someone mentioned that ongoing R&D is being shuttered, but the depth camera product would still be available for purchase for a while. It would be nice to get some more clarity on what's actually happening.
Recent and related:<p><i>Intel is giving up on its AI-powered RealSense cameras</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28218354" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28218354</a> - Aug 2021 (10 comments)
I'm out of this loop, why is it gone? Clicking on the repo it seems perfectly active, last release was a few days ago. The repo is not archived, the readme doesn't mention it's deprecated. What's going on here?
Your best bet is probably to order cheap IR or color industrial cameras and use stereo block matching. It's implemented in OpenCV and works okay-ish. For example, Basler dart USB3 cameras can be synchronized through the IO expension port.<p>That said, maybe it's time for someone to produce a good replacement. In my opinion, the RealSense was always quite pricey when compared with what it could do, especially now that we can just run AI algorithms on the edge.
I have been using Intel‘s D-435i for 6D object Pose estimation and i have to say i was not really happy with the quality of the retrieved depth-frames. The Depth images are very noisy, flat surfaces appear heavily wavy thus making it difficult to apply it for tasks that demand a relatively exact 3D representation of the surrounding Space, which is a problem that has been mentioned in a few issues by several other clients. Just Google ghost noise or wavyy Noise D-435i.<p>Moreover the AI implementier is actually Not really AI, it‘s just a bunch of common filters for depth-noise reduction such as a Median filter, just look up the filters. And lastly the depth-measurement becomes more unexact the further the point is away, therefore making it necessary to apply a depth-correction, in my case a correction polynom of 2nd Order.<p>All in all i have to say i‘d not use it again, especially not in industrial contexts. The Kinectv2 delivers a much more stable and reliable depth-image, Even though the realsense programming Interface is mostly nice to work with.
I haven't used these specific cameras, but enjoyed working with the company as client.<p><a href="https://en.ids-imaging.com/ensenso-stereo-3d-camera.html" rel="nofollow">https://en.ids-imaging.com/ensenso-stereo-3d-camera.html</a>
I've really enjoyed using Luxonis's OAK-D camera. First Kickstarter I've gotten, and does what they said it would. They have a very active Discord channel as well.
Realsense is not getting out of the business completely. They are restructuring and dropping the LiDAR development. They will continue with their more popular cameras.
For a T265 tracking camera replacement, visual pose and odometry, perhaps the Zed mini? This paper[1] suggests comparable accuracy. I've not used it. However, the Zed computation is software-sdk side, not integrated.<p>Hmm, it looks like Structure is now supporting linux?<p>[1] <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2218-6581/9/3/56/htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.mdpi.com/2218-6581/9/3/56/htm</a>
Is there some GPU or FPGA opensource implementation of depth camera comparable to RealSense in quality of its output?<p>I've seen many projects that call themself opensource while utilizing RealSense and I always scream internally how can they call themself opensource when absolute most of the work is being done by nongeneric and essential/irreplacable piece of proprietary technology.
Note some nice discussion along the same line as this thread over on ROS discourse:
<a href="https://discourse.ros.org/t/intel-cancelling-its-realsense-business-alternatives/21881" rel="nofollow">https://discourse.ros.org/t/intel-cancelling-its-realsense-b...</a>
Shameless self promotion, I'm a co-founder of Chronoptics and we design bespoke iToF depth cameras, have been thinking we should release a module to fill up the gap in the market caused by Intel's move.
AIRY3D has been developing a passive, single sensor depth solution that has lightweight power and compute requirements. With a single CMOS sensor you get both 2D and depth realtime streams. I work at AIRY3D and we have advanced prototypes with some samples available for eval/purchase (limited supply). Definitely could be a replacement for RealSense for certain applications (eg under 1 meter range, and ideal for outdoors).
OK, RealSense CTO put a comment in another issue:
<a href="https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense/issues/9648" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense/issues/9648</a><p>tl;dr: RealSense Stereo cameras are mostly sticking around.