Smart Building Design: Toposens Rolls Out TS ALPHA

By Tudor Scolca

TS ALPHA Development Kit

Toposens, a German manufacturer and developer of 3D ultrasound sensors, has launched their first product on the market, the TS ALPHA Development Kit. The small sensor system provides near-field data and has potential applications in commercial real estate, as well as autonomous vehicles, robotics and industrial production lines, among other industries.

In real estate, TS ALPHA can bring innovations to smart building design and seamless integration with other systems. The sensor works on the principles of echolocation, utilizing 3D ultrasound input, similarly to how a bat ‘sees.’ It can detect, count and track objects and people in the near-field, with a range of up to roughly 13 feet. Given the nature of the sensor data, TS ALPHA protects people’s privacy. Unlike a camera, the ultrasound signals TS ALPHA receives cannot be used to identify any personal features, nor process and record speech.

Smart building system developers can interpret the sensor’s data and apply it to a specific system. The raw data stream produced by TS ALPHA has numerous potential applications inside office buildings, retail stores or industrial spaces. Tracking the number and position of people to automate processes such as climate control or lighting can increase energy efficiency, for example. In retail, it can provide data relevant to a store’s layout by quantifying the behavior of customers.

The product is still in development phase, but orders can be placed for the TS ALPHA Development Kit. It includes a sensor, software and an advanced debugging software kit. Toposens also provides full telephone and email support, with potential clients able to receive help from the development team in integrating TS ALPHA into their applications.

Image courtesy of Toposens