Criminals, insurgents, and terrorists beware. The Eye Ball R1
remote-controlled 360-degree spherical camera system, or "mobile
display system", originally designed and developed by O.D.F.
Optronics, Ltd., out of Tel-Aviv, Israel, will now be manufactured
and marketed in the U.S. by Remington Technologies, a division of
Remington Arms Company, Ltd., through a licensing agreement.
[img]http://www.defensereview.com/1_31_2004/Eyeball_2.jpg[/img
Compact, lightweight, and ruggedized, the Eye Ball R1 was designed
and developed to be deployed/employed for.military Special
Operations (SPECOPS), law enforcement SWAT/SRT operations,
anti-terrorism/counterterrorism operations, hostage rescue
operations, and just about any and all other types of tactical
operations for which a small, rugged, lightweight wireless audio
device/video camera can come in handy. According to the company,
potential applications for the technology include (but or not
limited to) Dynamic Entry/High-Risk Entry Operations (including
room clearing and stairwell clearing), ceiling and attic
Investigation, surveillance operations, and search and rescue
operations.
Due to its ruggedized construction, the Remington Technologies Eye
Ball R1 can be rolled, tossed, or thrown wherever necessary. Once
deployed, the system can capture video out to 25 yards away and
audio up to a distance of 5 yards, and then broadcast both up to
200 yards wirelessly back to a large remote control device called a
Personal Display Unit (PDU), operated by the tactical operator. The
PDU can communicate with two Eye Ball R1's simultaneously. The
PDU's color video screen is 6.4".
The Eye Ball R1's omni-directional camera can rotate at 4 rpm until
a target is identified, and then give the operator a 55-degree
horizontal and 41-degree vertical field of view, as well as
near-infrared (IR) spectrum night vision capability for low-light
deployment/night operations. You can stick the Eye Ball R1 on a
mobile robot, remote-viewing, pole, or any other relevant tactical
device, even a remote-control car (which has apparently already
been done). Once the device is tossed/thrown, it remains static
after landing. Only the camera rotates. If the EyeBall R1 lands
upside down, the operator can flip the video feed in order to view
things right-side-up. By the way, it's been reported that the Eye
Ball R1 can survive a two-story drop.
DefenseReview finds the Eye Ball R1 technology interesting. To be
honest, we always enjoy tactically-relevant telepresence
technology, here at DefRev. The overall package here looks pretty
slick. What can we say, the Israelis keep coming up with new and
innovative tactical technologies. Frankly, we like any technology
that can potentially enable military SPECOPS, LE SWAT, and
anti-terrorism/counterterrorism operators to perform their missions
more safely, effectively, and efficiently. It would appear that the
Eye Ball R1 can do that, but we'll just have to wait and see.
For military Special Operations and anti-terrorism/counterterrorism
operations, it would be interesting to see if it would be possible
to create a specialized version of Eye Ball R1 outfitted internally
with plastic explosives (like C4, for instance) and
concentrically-arranged ball bearings, so operators can remotely
detonate it, and thus remotely terminate the hostile threat(s)
immediately, right then and there, once the target(s) is/are
located and identified. This could only be done if capture and
interrogation are unnecessary for gathering intel and the team is
either sure that no non-targeted personnel are present, or
collateral damage is deemed acceptable. Think of it as a smart
grenade (defensive grenade). Deploy, locate, identify, detonate.
It's that easy. Sure, it'll be a little larger and heavier in
weight, and a good bit more costly than a standard fragmention
grenade (defensive grenade). However, as long as it's well-balanced
(for accurate throwing) and the target(s) is/are important enough,
who cares? Of course, it would be much less expensive to just throw
in one or two standard frag grenades or flood the room (CQB
engagement) after you've identified the target(s) with a
standard-version Eye Ball R1, but this method would take extra time
and increase the chances of the target(s) escaping or responding
with force (due to the extra time involved), putting the team and
the public at large at greater risk. If you wanna' go less-lethal,
just make a specialized flash-bang (pyrotechnic) version of the
EyeBall R1, so you can stun 'em before you flood the room.
Actually, the latter is probably much easier said than done. For
that, you'd have to make all of the Eye Ball R1's components rugged
enough to handle the pyrotechnic blast, in order to be reusable.
This might not be possible.
Defense Review has actually been following the technology for
awhile now, ever since O.D.F. Optronics Ltd. first released
information about it. We just never quite got around to writing
about it. O.D.F. Optronics is a research and development firm that
specializes in "vision-based products for defense and security
applications". Co-founded by two computer-vision engineers named
Ehud Gal and Natan Merom, O.D.F Optronics designs, develops, and
markets electro-optic systems, omni-directional imaging systems,
omni-directional optics, and image processing and image
understanding software. Development of the Eye Ball R1 was handled
by O.D.F. Optronics' defense division.
A few more specs:
The Eye Ball R1 transmits audio and video at 2.4 GHz. The control
unit transmits at 902-928 MHz. The Eye Ball R1 is battery powered,
and can operate for 2 hours. The PDU can operate for 3 hours.
