Successful eyeCraft360 trials with British Army
Worlds first military 360 degree spherical camera technology successfully trialled by the British Army.
Image Courtesy: Petards
Petards have announced that they have completed successful trials of ‘eyeCraft360’ in partnership with the British Army’s Armoured Trials and Development Unit at Bovington. Developed by Petards, eyeCraft360 is world’s first military grade 360 spherical view camera system. It dramatically improves local situational awareness for armoured vehicles and provides a welcome boost to crew safety by reducing blind spot distances. Serving soldiers in heavy armour, light armour and mounted infantry roles put eyeCraft360 through its paces across a wide range of challenging terrains, light conditions and tactical exercises.
Developed in response to the growing need for improved close-range awareness, particularly in urban environments, eyeCraft360 provides a simple, rapid and cost-effective capability boost for all in-service armoured vehicles. It helps to reduce accidents and damage when manoeuvring by giving the vehicle commander an HD quality image all around (and above) his vehicle when closed down. The system comprises a hull-mountable omnidirectional camera, a single rugged screen and an armoured cable to join them together. Thanks to the rugged simplicity of the design, it is ready for use straight out of the box. Expensive and time-consuming integration is not required. It avoids the need for any mechanical moving parts by digitally stitching and stabilising its inputs to give a seamless 360 view at all times.
Scott Patterson, Defence Director at Petards said ‘we were delighted by the enthusiastic response the trials teams gave to the system. It was a pleasure to be able to hand all-round vision back to crews safely strapped into open-topped vehicles. A dismounted section commander reported first-hand that the system saved him 5 vital seconds under fire whilst he oriented himself on de-bussing from a Warrior armoured personnel carrier. With eyeCraft360 he (and his section) already knew what was around them.’