New Throwable Cameras Provide Innovative Tool For Law Enforcement
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Bounce Imaging, founded by an MIT alumnus in 2012, is helping law enforcement assess danger in unseen areas with its new device, the Explorer. Now, the Boston-based startup will be deploying 100 of the new gadgets to police departments nationwide, and it aims to expand to first responders and other security clients in the near future, according to MIT News.
Bounce Imaging CEO Francisco Aguilar, MBA, explained that the Explorer “basically gives a quick assessment of a dangerous situation.”
Agencies are beginning to leverage a variety of solutions in the effort to maintain security and protect its officers and the public — from drones to body cams to wearable heads-up display (HUD), and “adaptive mobile computing.”
The Explorer was originally conceived as a method of improving safety for first responders, GizMag reports, but the company quickly gained interest from police departments, whose officers are often faced with situations where threats are unclear. Aguilar conceived of the idea following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, when he learned that search and rescue teams were using fiber optic cameras to search for survivors.
“I started looking into low-cost, very simple technologies to pair with your smartphone,” Aguilar told the International Businsess Times, “so you wouldn’t need special training or equipment to look into these dangerous areas.”
Roughly the size of a softball, The Explorer is designed to be tossed into unseen areas, where it will send panoramic images to an Android or iOS mobile device, providing information about the potential dangers that officer may face.
Inside the Explorer is a single camera equipped with six lenses, encased in a thick rubber shell tested to military standard MIL-STD 810, ensuring that it can withstand being tossed into buildings and land on hard surfaces.
Gizmag reports the real innovation in the Explorer is its “image-stitching” technology,” developed by engineers at the Costa Rican Institute of Technology, which produce a single 360-degree panoramic image of the ball’s surrounding by connecting the individual monochrome WVGA (800x480) images taken each second. Aguilar explains that, unlike other methods that take up to 60 seconds to compile a single panorama, the software’s algorithms do it in just a fraction of a second, an important innovation for law enforcement officers in the field, where every minute matters.
In addition, the ball acts as its own Wi-Fi hotspot to ensure transmission of the data, with a range of 60 feet through standard walls, and a rechargeable battery lifespan of approximately 30 minutes.
Aguilar also said that the company is hoping to add more sensors to the device, including ones for radiation, temperature, and carbon monoxide, in order to expand the capabilities of the solution.