A man records a humanoid robot inside the exhibition room at the Humanoids Summit in Mountain View, California. Shpunt said he believes Lyte will serve as the 'visual brain' for robotics, acting as both the eyes and visual cortex, with a focus on sensing and perception technology. — AP
Top members of the team behind Apple Inc's Face ID are launching a startup to develop technology to help robots see better and move more safely in the world around them.
The company, Lyte, emerged from stealth on Monday after raising about US$107mil to date from investors including Fidelity Management & Research, Atreides Management, Exor Ventures, Key1 Capital, VentureTech Alliance and a group of private investors led by the Israeli entrepreneur Avigdor Willenz.
Mountain View, California-based Lyte was founded in 2021 by three former Apple employees – Alexander Shpunt, Arman Hajati, and Yuval Gerson – who played a major role in building the depth-sensing and perception technology that Face ID uses to capture faces. Earlier, Shpunt co-founded and served as chief technology officer of the 3D-sensing technology provider PrimeSense, which was acquired by Apple in 2013 for US$350mil and was the genesis for what would become Face ID. Gerson also worked at PrimeSense before the Apple takeover.
"We are trying to take the best things that Apple taught us – on attention to detail, operational excellence and how to excite and wow the customers – in order to bring this to the robotics market,” Shpunt said in an interview. "Apple was definitely a good school.”
Besides Face ID, PrimeSense was known for powering Microsoft Kinect – one of the first mass-volume computer vision products.
Now in his third act, Shpunt said he believes Lyte will serve as the "visual brain" for robotics, acting as both the eyes and visual cortex, with a focus on sensing and perception technology. Its flagship product, LyteVision, includes three sensor types: a camera, inertial motion sensing and a 4D sensor, which measures distance and velocity. The system then collects the location and visual data together in one platform.
"We realise that perception, and more generally, having robots understand what they do, be safe and immediately react to the world – not be a zombie robot – is something that we would like to solve,” Shpunt said. "So we went to solve that problem.”
Shpunt said the company plans to use its existing funds to invest in its core product, hire more workers and expand the operation. Although the robotics industry faces a number of challenges, particularly concerning battery life, mobility and safety, Shpunt believes Lyte will be able to show meaningful progress in the area of safety over the next three to five years.
The startup’s technology, which was awarded a CES Innovation award in robotics ahead of the annual consumer electronics show in Las Vegas this week, also provides immediately actionable data, which is crucial for decision making and enabling robots to see clearly and act safely in the physical world.
In addition, Lyte is building custom silicon, optics and software to cut down on the vendor selection process for robotics companies, the company said. A major challenge in the industry is the lengthy process of integrating sensors, which can take years before a product is ready. Lyte’s pitch is that it can simplify this by offering a plug-and-play solution, in which sensors and other components are built in with one infrastructure.
The AI robotics market is projected to reach US$125bil by 2030, but 60% of industrial companies lack the internal capability to implement robotic automation, including sensor integration, according to the consulting firm McKinsey & Co.
Lyte did not disclose current customers, but said its technology can be applied to different forms of robotics, from humanoids and mobile robots to robotaxis. The startup, which now employs about 100 people, is now ready to expand, Shpunt added. – Bloomberg
