Jun 30, 2015 | By Simon
As anybody who has been paintballing or played in laser tag might know, one of the greatest threats to first responders when entering an unfamiliar area or room is not knowing what might be behind a corner.
While years of dedicated research and experience has led to refined tactical techniques that decrease the chances of injury or threat, nothing will replace the ability of seeing what’s behind walls when it comes to the difference between life and death. Of course, this hasn’t always been an option.
However, thanks to a Boston-based startup, first responders will be able to see behind walls just by simply tossing a ‘ball’ into a room or unfamiliar area.
The startup, Bounce Imaging, is gearing up to release their first line of tactical spheres - which are equipped with cameras and sensors that can instantly transmit panoramic images back to a smartphone - in July. The company was founded by Francisco Aguilar, an MIT alumnus who invented the device with help from the school’s Venture Monitoring Service (VMS).
“It basically gives a quick assessment of a dangerous situation,” Aguilar told MIT News in a recent article on the 2012 grad.
Since announcing the development of the device, Aguilar has since gone on to win a number of awards and recognitions over the past three years including those from Time Magazine, Popular Science and Wired.
The device, which is about the size of a softball and can be attached to a utility belt for easy deployment, includes six cameras which are able to transmit a live stream of video activity directly back to dedicated devices that have been connected to the video feed - so long as they are within 60 feet of the device. According to the company, the onboard battery is capable of powering all six video cameras and sending their feeds for 30 minutes at a time with “full flash intensity” to ensure all subjects are properly lit.
While the final orb design is coated in a hard rubber that’s able to withstand being thrown multiple times against hard materials including concrete and brick, it is the result of many iterations that were done on a 3D printer.
Months of research, development and testing of prototypes went into developing the final Explorer, which Aguilar says resembled more of “a Medusa of cables and wires in a 3D-printed shell that was nowhere near throwable” during points of the iterative design process.
Without a doubt, the low cost and quick turnaround nature of 3D printing surely helped in bring the final Explorer concept to life. Despite all of the research and development that went into the product, Aguilar says that in the end, police are under so much pressure that they want something that is just simple and easy to use.
“We had loaded the system up with all sorts of options and buttons and nifty things — but really, they just wanted a picture,” added Aguilar.
The Explorer is just one of many examples of how 3D printing is helping entrepreneurs and inventors bring their ideas to life through an iterative design process that can consist of dozens of low cost 3D printed ‘shells’ of a product before landing on a final design.
Aguilar plans on launching the devices - which will start at $1,495 - within a month.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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