the First 360° Camera System for Yachts

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The Yachtview 360° system
360° panoramic view

The Yachtview 360° system is the world's first camera system for yachts from 15 meters to 60 meters and more that allows a seamless 360° panoramic view of a yacht from a helicopter perspective in real time. Even under the most difficult conditions when mooring, anchoring, manoeuvring in port or in narrow sea passages with high traffic, skippers can concentrate on the essentials and retain full control of the yacht. Completely stress-free.
Every centimetre of movement of the boat is transmitted in real time on the (plotter) monitor to avoid collisions, unforeseen incidents and wrong decisions. Due to the excellent effect of the residual light amplification of the cameras, you have everything in view, even in the evening and at night.

The beginning of a new era in mooring and complicated maneuvers

The camera - eyes of the Yachtview 360° system

Inside YachtView's 185° wide-angle camera is a high-end sCMOS image sensor that enables adaptive image enhancement, automatic switching between day and night modes, automatic white balance and dynamic exposure correction using DWDR (Digital Wide Dynamic Range) - the contrast between sun and shade at sea poses an enormous challenge for cameras. A high-quality residual light amplifier also makes the system usable at night in harbours.
The special camera lenses with a large wide angle (because of the all-round view) are embedded in an elaborately handcrafted housing made of resistant aluminium with the highest precision. The circuit board is potted, the housing is specially double-sealed and waterproof. To prevent ice formation on the lenses for use in cold regions, a heater can be built into the camera.
Each camera is individually tested in the course of quality assurance.

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The camera
Eyes of the Yachtview 360° system

The View Processing Unit (VPU) of the Yachtview 360° system houses a sophisticated algorithm that merges the four times 25 individual images into a 360° video of the yacht. The captain gets a view that allows him to see at a glance every corner of the boat, the distance to the quay wall, other boats or objects and possibly people in the water - from all angles and from all sides! In addition, the 360° view is transmitted to all kinds of mobile devices such as iPad®, iPhone®, Android™ smartphones & tablets, PCs, and TV screens. This information is delayed by half a second on mobile devices. The system automatically saves the last 15 minutes in high resolution. This makes it easy to detect any damage to the ship by third parties and to reconstruct the course of events.
The VPU is equipped with connections for USB, HDMI, DVI, and Ethernet.

View Processing Unit (VPU)
Brain of the Yachtview 360° System.

The View Processing Unit (VPU) of the Yachtview 360° system houses a sophisticated algorithm that merges the four times 25 individual images into a 360° video of the yacht. The captain gets a view that allows him to see at a glance every corner of the boat, the distance to the quay wall, other boats or objects and possibly people in the water - from all angles and from all sides and all this in a single view! In addition, the 360° view is transmitted to all kinds of mobile devices such as iPad®, iPhone®, Android™ smartphones & tablets, PCs, and TV screens. This information is delayed by half a second on mobile devices. The system automatically saves the last 15 minutes in high resolution. This makes it easy to detect any damage to the ship by third parties and to reconstruct the course of events.

The VPU is equipped with USB, HDMI, DVI, and Ethernet ports.

Technical Specification 

CAMERA

  • 185° wide angle YachtView 360 camera
  • automatic image correction
  • automatic day and night operation
  • Highly effective residual light amplification
  • Handmade, waterproof aluminium housing
  • Sealed and waterproof
  • F=1.8
  • Operating temperature -10°C ~ 50°C
  • Humidity 10% ~ 90% RH
  • 12V
  • Video output 1.0 Vp-p composite video / 75Ω VPU
 

View Processing Unit (VPU)

  • robust full aluminium housing
  • Intel® i5 3Ghz quadcore CPU
  • 2.4 GHz wireless mouse
  • 8 Channel High Speed Graphics Card
  • USB 3.0, HDMI, DVI, VGA
  • Gigabit Ethernet output
  • 440 x 150 x 323 mm (W x H x D), weight 11,5 kg
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Installation

For security reasons we do not use radio communication for the cameras. Therefore, one cable each is laid to the four positions of the cameras. The powerful YachtView Computer VPU (ViewProcessingUnit) with a 4 channel high speed graphics card is installed centrally, for example next to the navigation computers. The computer has 2 powerful, temperature-dependent fans to ensure operation even under very warm conditions. The installation is simple and takes a few hours of work. The final view, the adjustment of the cameras - which can also be mounted asymmetrically - is done individually for each yacht and can be adjusted perfectly and quickly by our engineers remotely via an internet connection anywhere in the world. Software maintenance and updates are done the same way, if necessary.


Possibly defective components are not repaired. We exchange them for new parts. During the warranty period of 2 years free of charge, afterwards against payment of the cost price of the component.
On request, our technicians will also carry out installations worldwide at a fixed price.

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Industry Information

For us, the research and ultimately the feasibility of such a system was the main focus. The sea-weatherproof camera was developed by us and is manufactured by a company in Glashütte. A location where watches and nautical instruments of world renown have been manufactured since 1845.

We are open for industrial cooperation to help implement such a system in all kinds of vehicles. In particular, we are open to cooperation of any kind with manufacturers of technical equipment. Our focus, commercial interest and core competence is the development of complex algorithms, artificial intelligence and, if necessary, GUI's.

The system can be extended in a future development as the primary source of information and integration of further sources of information as well as the use of learning artificial intelligence for an autonomously moving ship. We have a high competence in the development of AI.
We do not want to be a mass manufacturer. We produce small series for ambitious yacht owners until an industrial supplier takes over the business.


Further applications
Trucks, articulated lorries, special vehicles (example: mobile heavy-duty crane), emergency vehicles, buildings, (example) hoovercraft and much more.

Development of the system

2010

Start of the development of a 360° camera system with a 4-man team
Development of the unique algorithm, which allows easy adaptation to vehicles from 15-60 meters length. Of central importance is the fact that this system automatically supports cameras mounted asymmetrically and at different heights. (!) In contrast to static, unchangeably programmed partial views in cars.

2013

Premiere of YachView360° at the yacht fair Cannes Boat Show 2013.
The first SD version worked with 6 frames per second in "realtime" because there was no hardware available yet for higher frame rates in realtime.

2015

Update of the 2nd software generation for the use of faster 4 channel graphics cards. With 25 frames/sec. - Great video quality in real-time. 25 frames /sec. For four cameras this means 100 frames with 5 million pixels per second each for a flowing video. In real time!

2015/16

The system should work as well in cold areas as in the hot Caribbean. For this reason, the camera materials and construction method were generally developed from -40 to +50° C. New Full HD camera with heating, which keeps the camera always in a good temperature range.

2016

The first new YachtView360 Full HD system is installed for extensive testing (January).
Commissioning of the Full HD Yachview360 system

2017

Sales release of the Full HD system (September) after intensive testing.

2020 and beyond

We are working on further development of the software and implementation of additional functions and AI algorithms for future applications of YachtView360, such as 24 hour surveillance with AI. Identification of real, security relevant processes. No false reports from birds, big fish on the surface. Differentiation diver/dolphin possible. Only ships and boats, jet skis and small boats with direct course to the monitored object will trigger an alarm within a definable radius of 1m to 500m.

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