Az ára is töredéke a hasonló készülékeknek, 500 USA dollár körül mozog.
Számos alkalmazási területe van a Bounce kamerának: rendőrség, katonaság, tűzoltóság és a magán biztonsági szolgálatok is használhatják minimálisra csökkentve a rájuk és a környezetükre leselkedő veszélyeket. Sőt, nagyon hasznos lehet a különféle mentőegységek számára is, így például földrengés esetén eltűnt személyeket lehet vele fölkutatni vagy a lángoló épületben lehet vele megtalálni a bent rekedteket.
Bár még csak a prototípus létezik, a feltalálók a Massachusetts-i bűnüldöző szervekkel együttműködve januárra ígérik a sorozatgyártásra alkalmas rendszert.
A találmány veszélyeket is rejt Noel Sharkey, a robotika professzora kifejtette a BBC-nek, hogy ha bedobja valaki Bounce-t a szomszéd kertjébe, akkor megtudhatja, mi folyik ott. Sőt paparazzik és bűnözők is használhatják nem igazán nemes célokra. De nem ez az egyetlen találmány, amelyet jóra és rosszra is föl lehet használni. Mindenesetre, ha a kertbe beesik egy labda, nézzük meg alaposan, majd dobjuk vissza.
Forrás: info4security.com
English New ‘grenade’ camera wins TIME’s best invention By Rob Ratcliff
Bounce Imaging – ball-shaped camera grenade
A new invention from Massachusetts-based Bounce Imaging was this week named as one of TIME Magazine’s best inventions of 2012.
Anyone who has ever played a Call of Duty game will know that that the easiest way to ensure that you and your men are safe when entering a room is to toss a grenade in first. Unfortunately, this sort of gung-ho approach isn’t particularly acceptable in the real world.
Step forward ‘Bounce’, a ball-shaped camera with six lenses that can quickly stitch together a 360-degree image of a room and wirelessly transmit it back to a smartphone.
What’s more, Bounce is a fraction of the cost of similar technologies which have traditionally relied on fibre-optic wiring and often cost upwards of $5,000.
Bounce costs somewhere in the region of $500.
As well as producing an image of the environment it is thrown into, Bounce also carries sensors that can detect carbon monoxide, temperature, radiation and other hazards giving users a detailed picture of potential threats and dangers in a room.
The possible applications of this are enormous. For police forces, armies and private security staff they can throw Bounce into a room like a grenade – getting a detailed image of where intruders might be hiding while completely mitigating the danger of harming innocent bystanders with a real grenade.
For emergency services there are a range of possible applications. Search and rescue teams can deploy Bounce to search for missing people after earthquakes. Fire services can use it to establish the Oxygen levels in a burning building and to search for people stranded inside.
‘Every day, we ask first responders to enter hazardous, unseen spaces,’ say Bounce Imaging. Their hope is that this technology will allow them to see, for a comparatively minimal cost.
The device is still a prototype but Bounce Imagine will be working with Massachusetts law enforcement agencies in January to perfect the system.
However, not everyone’s convinced. Speaking to the BBC, robotics professor Noel Sharkey expressed concerns over privacy.
He said: “You can throw it anywhere, into someone’s garden for instance, and you’ll be able to see everything that’s going on – it’s not much different from the use of a drone except that it’s much more immediate.
“So if you throw it over someone’s private property, it could be used, for instance, by the paparazzi or by criminals who could just throw it over the roof and get lots of images in between.”
The fact that Bounce has some people this concerned shows its potential. So the next time a ball lands in your back garden, be sure to throw it back!
Source: info4security.com
