After showing the world a prototype throwable camera in 2012, is sending 100 of its Explorer Bounce Imaging cameras to police departments in the United States. The Boston-based company originally the idea of a throwable camera in an attempt to improve safety for first responders, but soon the interest of police departments whose staff are often forced headlong into potentially dangerous situations without a clear picture of what they "jump won ll face.
The Explorer is similar sized like a softball designed to be thrown in hazardous environments and immediately send panoramic images to Android or iOS mobile device, so you better about possible dangers that may lie ahead citizens.
The Explorer contains a camera with six separate lenses, a setup due to their lower cost and lower complexity compared to the assembly of the ball with six separate cameras decided. The outer layer consists of a thick rubber casing which is designed to withstand being thrown in building and landing on hard surfaces.
Once activated, the device camera, take a few monochrome WVGA (800 x 480) images per second. These are performed by a single processor, with production by engineers at the Costa Rican Institute of Technology, a single 360-degree panoramic image of the sphere surrounding developed image-stitching software.
It is this image-stitching technology, the Bounce Imaging CEO and inventor Explorer Francisco Aguilar raises an important innovation that allows the unit. Unlike other methods, take a minute to combine multiple images into a single panorama, to the software algorithms, to achieve this in a fraction of a second.
Since there is no guarantee that a building will have a solid Wi-Fi connection - especially when it alight - the ball serves as its own Wi-Fi hotspot, make sure that users can wirelessly to obtain images of the ball. Area is currently estimated at 60 ft (20 m) depend on standard walls, and batteries of the ball last 30 minutes with the embedded LEDs flash at full intensity.
The idea of a throwable ball with cameras inside is not limited to the police and rescuers. Over the past year we have seen a number of attempts at creating a throwable camera to capture around on compelling perspectives of the world around us.
Jonas Pfeil has tried to create a ball that takes 72 megapixel panoramas while Panono took a crowdfunding route to creating a throwable panoramic camera creation. There is also a prototype of a company called Squito, reconnaissance, search and rescue and first responder scene assessment listed in its potential applications.
Bounce Imaging is hoping more orders for its throwable camera field than its full potential is illustrated by the experience with police departments. The company also plans to sensors for radiation, temperature and carbon monoxide in order to expand the skills of the ball in the future, where image Aguilar says the image-stitching technology could also find applications in drones, video games, movies or smartphone technologies.
"Our main focus is that the [Explorer] works well in the market," says Aguilar. "And then we try to see what exciting things we can do with the image processing, the computational requirements could significantly reduce a number of industries to develop immersive video."
The standard Explorer, which comes with white LEDs to illuminate the room and distract potential attackers on US $ 1495 prices, while the Tactical Edition that comes with near-infrared LEDs to illuminate a room discreetly, is priced at $ 2495 price.
The Explorer functionality is shown in the video below.
Sources: MIT News, Bounce Imaging
0 comments :
Post a Comment