Massachusetts Institute of Technology

William D Ross

Cindy Y Fang

Lawrence M Candell

Bobby Ren

Jonathan P Blanchard

Daniel B Chuang

Mark E Beattie

Lauren L White

Svetlana Panasyuk

Mark Bury

Gary M Long, Jr

Joseph Bari

Victoria Dye

Donald Johnson

Christopher Bowen

William Cason

Kyle Bojanowski

A wide-area motion imaging system provides 360&#xb0; persistent surveillance with a camera array that is small, light-weight, and operates at low power. The camera array is mounted on a tethered drone, which can hover at heights of up to 400', and includes small imagers fitted with lenses of different fixed focal lengths. The tether provides power, communication, and a data link from the camera array to a ground processing server that receives, processes and stores the imagery. The server also collects absolute and relative position data from a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) carried by the drone. The server uses this position data to correct the rolling shutter effect and to stabilize and georectify the final images, which can be stitched together and shown to a user live or in playback via a separate user interface.

Wide-area motion imaging systems and methods

Security guards at big facilities, such as airports, monitor multiple screens that display images from individual surveillance cameras dispersed throughout the facility. If a guard zooms with a particular camera, he will lose image resolution, along with perspective on the surrounding area. Embodiments of the inventive Imaging System for Immersive Surveillance (ISIS) solve these problems by combining multiple cameras in one device. When properly mounted, example ISIS systems offer 360-degree, 100-megapixel views on a single screen. (Other resolutions may also be employed.) Image-stitching software merges multiple video feeds into one scene. The system also allows operators to tag and follow targets, and can monitor restricted areas and sound an alert when intruders breach them.

Imaging system for immersive surveillance

Security guards at large facilities, such as airports, monitor multiple screens that display images from individual surveillance cameras dispersed throughout the facility. If a guard zooms with a particular camera, he may lose image resolution, along with perspective on the surrounding area. Embodiments of the inventive Imaging System for Immersive Surveillance (ISIS) solve these problems by combining multiple cameras in one device. When properly mounted, example ISIS systems offer up to 360-degree, 240-megapixel views on a single screen. (Other fields of view and resolutions are also possible.) Image-stitching software merges multiple video feeds into one scene. The system also allows operators to tag and follow targets, and can monitor restricted areas and sound an alert when intruders breach them.

Imaging systems and methods for immersive surveillance

Growing community of inventors

Westford, MA, United States of America

William D Ross