Tampa International Airport to be revolutionised with Cepton Lidar
Cepton, Inc., a Silicon Valley innovator and leader in high performance lidar solutions, today announced that it is expanding its lidar technology presence deployed by The Indoor Lab to enable groundbreaking lidar-based AI analytics at Tampa International Airport (TPA).
This partnership is focused on revolutionizing airport operations by offering an integrated, privacy-compliant perception solution. Utilizing a lidar-based single sensing technology on a unified software platform, the solution provides rich features in a seamless interface. It aims to provide round-the-clock operational analytics and leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for managing both indoor and outdoor spaces.
“We are proud to collaborate with Cepton in expanding lidar’s use cases within the airport environment through this seven-year partnership with TPA,” said Patrick Blattner, CEO of The Indoor Lab, a Blattner Technologies Company. “From the moment a passenger gets dropped off at the airport, to going through security, boarding the plane and finally taking off, we are breaking new ground with products and services designed to enable a safer, more productive, and much improved passenger experience, paving the way for the airport of the future.”
Lidar uses eye-safe, invisible light to scan an environment without relying on external lighting sources. Unlike camera-based 2D computer vision technology, lidar-enabled AI analytics take advantage of behaviour-based, non-biometric data derived from high-fidelity, anonymous real-time 3D images. This makes lidar an ideal sensor technology for use in privacy-sensitive venues.
Blattner adds: “Lidar’s high-accuracy, real-time perception capabilities can improve almost every aspect of airport operations. In addition to indoor crowd analytics, which aid in staffing optimization, cleanliness maintenance, concession line management, TSA wait time management and terminal safety, lidar also offers real-time outdoor measurements. Unlike cameras, lidar is impervious to lighting conditions or overhead mounting restrictions. Cepton lidars provide a wide field of view where every point in the 3D point cloud is measurable. This makes lidar the only technology on the horizon capable of fully leveraging AI’s operational efficiencies.”
The Indoor Lab is deploying lidar-based solutions across TPA, enabling the airport to improve safety and efficiency at the entrance, pickup and drop-off areas, the terminals and the airfield. By combining a global mesh network of Cepton lidar sensors, The Indoor Lab is creating the first airport of its kind to leverage lidar telemetry data across the entire airport, combined with operational AI, to create the airport of the future.
Brunno Moretti, Senior Vice President of Product and Commercial Operations, says: “The Indoor Lab is at the forefront of lidar technology adoption in airport settings. Since 2019, Cepton and The Indoor Lab have been working closely to make air travel safer and more enjoyable for worldwide passengers. We are thrilled to expand the implementation of our lidar technology to cover both indoor and outdoor applications at Tampa International Airport. We believe lidar as a privacy-compliant sensor technology will transform the future of smart spaces.”
