This article reviews key ideas discussed at the recent CLEO Conference — specifically, at the OIDA Executive Forum on the Exploding Role of Optics in Sensing — held May 14, 2018 in San Jose, Calif. It also includes my own thoughts and observations.

“Perception is everything,” or so the saying goes. Indeed, technologically enabled perception — and the software required to make sense of the resultant data — is the vehicle to safe, reliable autonomous driving. And the optics industry holds the keys.

Stanford University researchers have developed a laser-based system that can reproduce images of objects hidden from view. The technology can be used to enhance the safety of self-driving vehicles, as well as applied to serve other functions.

Autonomous mobility’s progress has been achieved in fits and starts, though the past few years have seen accelerated development in its enabling technologies.

After feasting on a full day of insight from some of the most prominent names in altered and virtual reality technologies, attendees were treated to a panel discussion that assembled pioneers in the space, asking them to muse on its past, present, and future.

An international team of scientists has produced the first high-powered, randomly polarised laser beam with a "Q switch" laser, which typically emits pulses of light so brief that they're measured in nanoseconds.

BYTON's all-new smart intuitive vehicle will make its global debut at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, U.S.A. on January 7, 2018. A next generation smart device, the car is uniquely built for the coming era of truly shared, smart mobility and autonomous driving.

Jeff Briton and Dragan Grubsic discuss some of the challenges involved in operating pulsed laser diodes and avalanche photodiodes in LIDAR for the automotive and sensor markets.

At Photonics West 2017, Frank Weiss with Gooch & Housego offered practical advice on considerations one should take into account when specifying fiber optics for deployment in rugged environments, including life cycle requirements, the pitfalls of underspecifying, and the potential headaches that can be involved in not paying close attention to export control parameters.

The pco.dimax cs camera with its true 12-bit performance is ideal for providing crisp, brilliant color images for all car safety testing applications involving onboard, offboard, and sled testing. This high speed video presents car safety testing situations recorded with the pco.dimax cs camera.

In this video, one of Zygo’s applications engineers provides a demonstration of the ZeGage^TM 3D optical surface profiler as it measures the roughness of the surface of a sealing valve used in the automotive industry. That might sounds fairly unremarkable, but check out how the system does on a rickety plastic table in a machine shop full of noise and vibration.

John Franks of Umicore tells about the lenses the company provides for applications involving automotive night vision, defense, security and surveillance, thermography, and personal thermal vision. He also shares some exciting news about new catalog lenses that are currently available.

Photron has launched two new cameras over the last few months: the FASTCAM SA-Z and the Mini UX100. North American sales manager Tim Callenbach tells us about them and their role in applications involving ballistics, off-board automotive testing, shockwaves, broadcasting, fluidics, welding, materials science, plasma and arc studies, and more.

Vision Components® changed machine vision monitoring in the industrial manufacturing process with a smart idea. The innovative German manufacturer's smart cameras operate without external devices and work perfectly in quality assurance, efficiency enhancement and retraceability. Pharmaceutics, food or packaging, semiconductors, logistics or automotive -- practice shows that in all industries industrial image processing applications can be optimally solved with intelligent cameras.