09 December 2024
360 camera system for next-level situational awareness
Smart Panoramic Edge Camera System greatly reduces the risk of accidents by providing; an almost perfect 360-degree camera system view of the vessel and its surroundings.
Concept
Today, Wärtsilä Voyage, part of the technology group Wärtsilä, announces the launch of its Smart Panoramic Edge Camera System (S.P.E.C.S). Designed to significantly enhance marine safety, it’s a camera system that provides 360-degree situational awareness. Streamed directly to the bridge in real-time.
Features
The system eliminates blind spots with digital panoramic cameras located around the vessel. Moreover, S.P.E.C.S can provide a bird’s eye view of the ship and its surroundings. Hence, offering a significant advantage when docking. The system’s cameras provide a calibrated range grid around the vessel to give precise measurements of distances. Furthermore, it offers an augmented reality view by connecting to the navigation system. Thus, assist in identifying targets and potential hazards.
Benefits
“Safety is of increasing concern in today’s maritime environment. Vessels have become ever larger in size, and the volume of sea traffic is greater than ever before. With S.P.E.C.S, the bridge crew has a perfect view of what’s going on around the ship at all times. This takes situational awareness to a completely new level, and greatly reduces the risk of accidents and costly damage,”.
Sasha Heriot, Head of Product, Assistance Systems, Wärtsilä Voyage
Thanks to the full view – free of blind spots – that it offers, the S.P.E.C.S system solves challenges such as:
- Spotting of small vessels
- Monitoring of tug operations
- Potential inaccuracies of manual docking.
By eliminating this uncertainty and providing almost perfect situational awareness, S.P.E.C.S greatly reduces risks both in busy harbors and in confined waters.
Multiple display and workstation options come with a dedicated software package specifically optimized for the hardware. The camera pods are designed to cope with the harshest marine conditions, and the system is not reliant on the global navigation satellite system (GNSS).
Source: Wärtsilä