Bounce Imaging, Boston-based startup released Tactical throwable camera called the Explorer, equipped with cameras and sensors, that can be tossed into potentially hazardous areas to instantly transmit panoramic images of those areas back to a smartphone. It is Android and iOS compatible. It has Near-infrared LEDs (850nm) that illuminate the space for the cameras without the high-intensity strobes of the white light unit.
Due small size throwable camera can be used in narrow and crowded environment for security, safety and exploration. It can be used as first responder for police in security and rescue operations.
The softball-sized Explorer is covered in a thick rubber shell. Inside is a camera with six lenses, peeking out at different indented spots around the circumference, and LED lights. When activated, the camera snaps photos from all lenses, a few times every second. Software uploads these disparate images to a mobile device and stitches them together rapidly into full panoramic images. There are plans to add sensors for radiation, temperature, and carbon monoxide in future models.
Explorer tactical edition has transmission range upto 20 meter through a standard wall and run time 30 minute at full flash intensity. It can transmit 1 full 360 degree panorama per second. The price of Explorer is $2495.
Today’s Explorer is designed with a few “neat tricks,” Aguilar, creator of Explorer says. First is a custom, six-lensed camera that pulls raw images from its lenses simultaneously into one processor. This reduces complexity and reduces the price tag of using six separate cameras.
The ball also serves as its own wireless hotspot, through Bounce Imaging’s network, that a mobile device uses to quickly grab those images — “because a burning building probably isn’t going to have Wi-Fi, but we still want to work with a first responder’s existing smartphone,” Aguilar says.
But the key innovation, Aguilar says, is the image-stitching software, developed by engineers at the Costa Rican Institute of Technology. The software’s algorithms, Aguilar says, vastly reduce computational load and work around noise and other image-quality problems. Because of this, it can stitch multiple images in a fraction of a second, compared with about one minute through other methods.
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“In fact, after the Explorer’s release, we’re trying to see what exciting things we can do with the imaging processing, which could vastly reduce computational requirements for a range of industries developing around immersive video.” Aguilar said.
The first version of Explorer has praised by several media including Wired, the BBC, NBC, Popular Science, and Time — which named the device one of the best inventions of 2012. Bounce Imaging also earned top prizes at the 2012 MassChallenge Competition and the 2013 MIT IDEAS Global Challenge.
(Image:A police officer prepares to throw the Explorer into an unseen stairwell. The camera will then immediately send images of the area back to the smartphone on the officer’s wrist.)