360 Degree Stabilized Thermal Imaging for Patrol and Emergency Management

The United States Air Force and its Security Forces have a national defense-related mission need in the area of resilient information sharing.  Air Force Security Forces are responsible for protecting some of the Nation’s most critical assets including nuclear missiles, launch control centers, and Air Force facilities around the world.  The protection of these assets, permanent and temporary airfields, and Air Force personnel, are critical to the ensure the ability of the Air Force to execute its mission on behalf of our nation. Security Forces, law enforcement, and first responders of all kinds are often faced with difficult situations that take place in complex terrain.  Some of the most challenging types of terrain include dense urban environments, subterranean spaces, and confined areas of all kids.  There are often not tools available to assist emergency personnel with developing situational awareness in these types of environments, let alone to share that information with mission command at the Defense Operations center.  While some robotic or drone equipment exists, it often lacks the ability to operate in these confined environments and provides a stovepipe view due to insufficient camera and transmission capabilities.  This can result in significant casualties of security forces personnel, delaying critical mission actions, and forcing decisions to be made without sufficient information.   With the help of AFWERX, Bounce Imaging seeks to develop a tetherable 360-degree thermal camera that enables Airmen to gain advanced situational awareness in drone-inaccessible environments (low-light, highly signal challenged scenarios). This advanced tetherable, 360-degree view camera system will be designed to provide mission essential combat capability and real-time information advantage to the USAF, DoD, and other government and commercial end users. With the initial focus confined spaces, this capability will provide security forces personnel with the ability to complex environments and transmit video back to a Defense Operations Center, prior to making entry into a space. The system will also possess the ability to be retrieved from a tether, be used as a temporary security camera, or attached to a small pole to view around corners and into tight spaces.  The camera would also be able to be mounted to a UGV/UAS as an alternate sensor to provide 360-degree stabilized thermal views.  This unique capability has broad applicability across law enforcement, search and rescue, disaster recovery, special operations, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mission sets.