Roke demonstrates "first viable 3D ‘black box’ technology for vehicles"

Installed on an autonomous Toyota Prius, Roke demonstrated how data captured via a single dashboard camera could be used to provide a precise 3D reconstruction following a road incident.

Dubbed vPinPoint, the technology is set to offer insurers, drivers and, in the case of autonomous vehicles, manufacturers independent evidence of what happened in the event of an accident. The technology also has the potential to lead to safer vehicles and help build public trust in driverless vehicles.

Early iterations of this technology were first developed by Roke for soldiers in research undertaken for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). Over the past year, Roke has been developing and miniaturising the technology with funding from Innovate UK.

Dr James Revell, consultant engineer at Roke said: “Unlike current dashcams, the technology we tested today uses computer vision algorithms to enable the precise position and orientation of any vehicle – car, bike, lorry or autonomous vehicle.