voxel

A voxel is a unit that divides three-dimensional space into cube-shaped cells. Think of it as a pixel turned into a solid block.

A photo is made up of tiny square dots called pixels packed closely together. A voxel adds one more dimension: depth. Imagine filling an entire room with LEGO blocks — each block is a voxel, and the smaller the blocks, the more precisely the shape of the room can be captured.

Machines divide space into cells like this because it makes computation easier. If each cell is labeled as either "wall here" or "empty there," a robot only needs to scan the cells to find a path through the space. Matic's cleaning robot converts camera footage into 1-cubic-centimeter voxels to build a map of the inside of a home, and keeps redrawing that map continuously while it cleans.

"It runs a neural network that converts images into 1-cubic-centimeter voxels" — this means turning a scene captured by a camera into a 3D structure built out of 1-centimeter cube blocks, revealing the layout of the home.