Neptec's Iain Christie (Darren Brown, OBJ)

Ottawa's Neptec Design Group is leveraging its expertise in intelligent 3D vision systems through a partnership orchestrated by provincially funded technology incubator the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE).

Neptec focuses on the military, manufacturing and aerospace markets and has received a lot of media attention over the past couple of years for its inspection system used in NASA's Space Shuttle program. It will team with another local firm, Terrapoint Canada Inc., which specializes in LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data for civil engineering applications.

The partnership is being touted as an example of how companies with different, but complimentary, technologies can leverage their respective products to reach new markets and customers. In this instance, OCE is being credited as the matchmaker.

"This partnership is a great example of how similar technologies in different market sectors can unite to generate innovative technologies which enable us to provide new solutions for our clients," James Ferguson, president of Terrapoint, said in a statement.

"Neptec is well-known for its sophisticated algorithms and we expect the integration of that intelligence will allow us to significantly improve the quality and speed of delivery of the products we are able to serve to our customers."

Under the terms of the joint collaboration agreement, Neptec will support further development of Terrapoint's terrestrial LiDAR system, TiTAN, with analytical software algorithms. Titan is used in civil engineering applications "to overcome engineering challenges such as urban canyons, limited access, and flight-exclusion zoning."

Neptec, meanwhile, will license the technology that underlies the TiTAN sensor system and produce a vehicle mounted 3D LiDAR scanning system for the military and security markets.

"Militaries are starting to tap into the potential of accurate 3D models - especially in urban terrain. We are excited about combining a sensor like TiTAN with our expertise in processing 3D information. We think this will be a truly unique solution," said Iain Christie, Neptec's director of business development. "We expect this partnership to enable both of our companies to expand our horizons and provide unique products that will benefit both industries."