SoftServ Int. has developed a wide area motion imagery (WAMI) system that will reduce the cost of image acquisition and remove some of limitations of traditional WAMI systems.
Most WAMI systems today cover an extremely wide area, are very expensive, and are designed for military applications, according to a press release. These systems may also be used to analyze patterns in traffic or harbors, and require a large number of HD video cameras. With SoftServ’s Cheetah Stare platform, the concept of WAMI is applied to an OEM environment, where the company hopes to reduce costs and create a more efficient system.
Cheetah Stare features two models, the first of which is for static platforms. For this model, a Point Grey 8.8 Mpixel Flea3 USB 3 camera with an IMX121 CMOSimage sensor is employed. The camera features a 32 Mbyte frame buffer, on-camera power, temperature and status monitoring, and in-field updatable firmware. It also includes on-camera processing, including color interpolation, look up table, gamma correction, and pixel-binning functionality. In addition, the 4096 x 2160 pixel camera acquires images at 21 fps and features rolling shutter with global reset.
For the other, mobile platform, Cheetah Stare utilizes Point Grey’s 9.1 Mpixel Grasshopper 3 USB3 camera, which features an ICX814 CCD image sensor. This USB3 camera features FPGA and frame buffer based architecture, a full image processing pipeline that includes color interpolation, gamma, and lookup table functionality, and an included software development kit.
Cheetah Stare is designed to perform three functions:
- Data acquisition, in which the system captures images throughout the day and extracts image-related meta-data.
- Data storage, in which images and data are stored on a solid state drive which is removed and inserted into Stare Server, which can maintain months’ worth of data.
- Viewing function, which allows users to display multiple regions of interest windows, showing both imagery and exploited information.
SoftServ aims to launch the Cheetah Stare by the end of 2013.
View the press release.
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About the Author
James Carroll
Former VSD Editor James Carroll joined the team 2013. Carroll covered machine vision and imaging from numerous angles, including application stories, industry news, market updates, and new products. In addition to writing and editing articles, Carroll managed the Innovators Awards program and webcasts.