From first responders to spelunkers, Bounce Imaging aims to boost safety with new device
Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal
Courtesy
After the 2010 Haiti earthquake left thousands of people trapped
beneath rubble, overwhelmed search teams simply couldn't get to everyone
in time.
More lives might have been saved with the aid of sophisticated robots and fiber-optic equipment, according to Francisco Aguilar. But those can tend to be costly, large and difficult to access (particularly in places like Haiti).
Aguilar knew there had to be a better way. And so he launched a company, Bounce Imaging, to develop low-cost, baseball-sized devices that can literally be thrown into risky or life-threatening situations to gather images and data.
“The key behind this is we're going for radical simplicity,” said Aguilar, who founded the company with David Young in May 2012.
Equipped with six wide-angle cameras and an array of sensors, the lightweight devices, once thrown, beam images and crucial data such as temperature, oxygen and carbon monoxide levels, back to a tablet — then continuously update that information.
The products are still in development, with the company focusing its initial efforts on police. “We've seen how much the world has changed for police,” Aguilar said.
Bounce Imaging expects to have trials with several police units in Massachusetts in late November, and the goal is to release a beta version to select departments in July 2014, Aguilar said.
Once publicly available, the units should retail for about $1,000, compared to anywhere from $10,000 to $300,000 for robotic or fiber-optic systems.
Based out of the Harvard Innovation Lab in Allston and with five U.S. employees, Bounce Imaging has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding, and is currently working on its next round, according to Aguilar. The startup received $50,000 as a prize winner in the MassChallenge 2012 accelerator program, and is now planning a Kickstarter campaign for later this year.
Aguilar and Young – who spent four-and-a-half years as an active duty infantry officer in the U.S. Army and served in Baghdad and Afghanistan – initially interviewed “first responders of all stripes” and based much of the design around their needs, Aguilar said. They have also received insight from advisory board members John DiFava, former superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, and Rich Breault, CEO of Haverhill-based Lightspeed Manufacturing.
The two first developed a device the diameter of a coconut, sizing it down to roughly the circumference of a baseball. The intent is to make the simplest possible product to serve a need, Aguilar said. The hope is that the data the devices collect can also be aggregated and used in the field. For instance: To help map razed buildings during a search and rescue operation.
And because the core architecture can accept a broad range of sensors, the devices could eventually be used in a wide range of situations beyond first response, such as nuclear safety, industrial inspections, and Homeland Security check-points, Aguilar said. The company has also seen unexpected consumer interest from such people as spelunkers and photographers.
“We want to get into more and more fields where we can increase safety for a broader range of people,” Aguilar said.
Ultimately, “we envision the company as something that really revolutionizes how we look at robotics.”
Original story link.
More lives might have been saved with the aid of sophisticated robots and fiber-optic equipment, according to Francisco Aguilar. But those can tend to be costly, large and difficult to access (particularly in places like Haiti).
Aguilar knew there had to be a better way. And so he launched a company, Bounce Imaging, to develop low-cost, baseball-sized devices that can literally be thrown into risky or life-threatening situations to gather images and data.
“The key behind this is we're going for radical simplicity,” said Aguilar, who founded the company with David Young in May 2012.
Equipped with six wide-angle cameras and an array of sensors, the lightweight devices, once thrown, beam images and crucial data such as temperature, oxygen and carbon monoxide levels, back to a tablet — then continuously update that information.
The products are still in development, with the company focusing its initial efforts on police. “We've seen how much the world has changed for police,” Aguilar said.
Bounce Imaging expects to have trials with several police units in Massachusetts in late November, and the goal is to release a beta version to select departments in July 2014, Aguilar said.
Once publicly available, the units should retail for about $1,000, compared to anywhere from $10,000 to $300,000 for robotic or fiber-optic systems.
Based out of the Harvard Innovation Lab in Allston and with five U.S. employees, Bounce Imaging has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding, and is currently working on its next round, according to Aguilar. The startup received $50,000 as a prize winner in the MassChallenge 2012 accelerator program, and is now planning a Kickstarter campaign for later this year.
Aguilar and Young – who spent four-and-a-half years as an active duty infantry officer in the U.S. Army and served in Baghdad and Afghanistan – initially interviewed “first responders of all stripes” and based much of the design around their needs, Aguilar said. They have also received insight from advisory board members John DiFava, former superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, and Rich Breault, CEO of Haverhill-based Lightspeed Manufacturing.
The two first developed a device the diameter of a coconut, sizing it down to roughly the circumference of a baseball. The intent is to make the simplest possible product to serve a need, Aguilar said. The hope is that the data the devices collect can also be aggregated and used in the field. For instance: To help map razed buildings during a search and rescue operation.
And because the core architecture can accept a broad range of sensors, the devices could eventually be used in a wide range of situations beyond first response, such as nuclear safety, industrial inspections, and Homeland Security check-points, Aguilar said. The company has also seen unexpected consumer interest from such people as spelunkers and photographers.
“We want to get into more and more fields where we can increase safety for a broader range of people,” Aguilar said.
Ultimately, “we envision the company as something that really revolutionizes how we look at robotics.”
Original story link.
No comments:
Post a Comment