Memory- and Bandwidth-Efficient SPAD-LiDAR Ranging via Coarse-to-Fine Spline Sketching
Shrinking the data flood from super-sensitive 3D cameras
Researchers developed a compression technique that lets ultra-sensitive light detectors (SPADs) send 3D distance measurements using a fraction of the usual memory and bandwidth. The method works by converting individual photon timestamps into compact numerical sketches on the fly, rather than building full histograms — achieving 100–1000× compression while actually improving accuracy. The approach even recovers hidden objects partially blocked by camouflage or semi-transparent materials.
SPAD-LiDAR sensors can detect individual photons and measure distances with millimeter precision, but they generate overwhelming amounts of data that drains power and memory in mobile robots, autonomous vehicles, and 3D cameras. This compression cuts the data bottleneck while keeping or improving measurement quality, making the technology practical for real-world devices that can't afford to transmit or store gigabytes per second of sensor information.