Owl Autonomous Imaging has developed and patented “monocular 3D thermal imaging and ranging solutions.”

The company’s tech is applicable to automotive advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

According to Owl, current ADAS systems generally use “mutually dependent visible-light cameras and radar” that can be negatively affected under certain conditions. Like night and/or rain.

So the Owl system is meant to overcome those limitations by using HD thermal imaging and the appropriate computer vision algorithms that are capable of creating “ultra-dense point clouds and highly refined object classification.”

In other words, objects like people and other animals generate heat and this system is able of detecting it.

Here’s the curious thing: the tech that Owl is developing for automotive use is predicated on “a thermal ranging solution developed under a challenge grant from the US Air Force to track missiles in flight traveling at over 1,000 mph.”