Lens Overcomes Flaws in Outdated Technology; Can Be Mounted on All Standard Video Surveillance Equipment
Montreal: ImmerVision announced today that it has stepped up production of its “new generation” panomorph IMV1-1/3 lens to meet increased demand from surveillance equipment providers and industry members. In light of ongoing security concerns worldwide, the IMV1-1/3 lens represents a universal solution that overcomes potentially dangerous flaws in outdated technology. The IMV1-1/3 lens is the only panoramic imaging lens in the world that can be added to existing standard analog and IP video surveillance systems, with the ability to survey an entire area with 360° coverage, no blind spots and no viewing down-time.
“The armed forces, border-security agencies and transportation-security planners have long recognized the benefits of panoramic imaging for security and surveillance,” said Professor Simon Thibault, PhD, ImmerVision’s Director, Optical Division. “However, existing panoramic lenses such as fisheye and mirror have resulted in problems with clarity, blind spots, distortion and/or resolution.”
As an improvement over existing technology or older panoramic technologies such as fisheye and mirror lenses, the IMV1-1/3 overcomes specific visual challenges and does not require an investment in additional equipment. Notes Pascale Nini, President and CEO of ImmerVision, “The IMV1-1/3 lens has astonished insiders because it doesn’t require expensive hardware or extra bandwidth to function. Its easy-to-install software eliminates image distortion and makes it compatible with virtually any digital video recorder. People have trouble believing that our solution, because it is so sophisticated, is actually so simple and accessible.”
The term “panomorph”, as referred to by scientists internationally, is a patented wide-angle anamorphic lens that generates and controls distortion, and gives a larger image that covers at least a 180° by 360° field of view. The ability of the IMV1-1/3 lens to capture and navigate within a 360° image and without distortion is particularly significant in high risk areas such as airports, mass transit, government and corporate offices, shopping centers or any public area. “The benefits are obvious in real-life situations,” continues Nini, “such as an attack recently on a woman in a subway area that security personnel were unable to detect because of blind spots in the system. This shouldn’t be happening, and the IMV1 panomorph technology addresses that very real concern.”
ImmerVision’s IMV1-1/3 lens can fit on any video camera with a 1/3″ sensor from 480 TVL to 1.2 MP, which is standard for security video surveillance. “When our R&D team created the IMV1-1/3 lens, they took a radical approach,” Nini goes on to say. “While everyone was looking to reduce distortion, we went outside the box and looked at the problem differently by increasing the distortion. This enabled us to capture a broader image area, eliminate the distortion and improve the picture clarity with intelligent software. People often say to me that our technology is the way of the future but in fact it’s very today and, particularly with increasing security issues, there is a real need for it right now.”
“In the past, people wanting to capture a 360° area in one single image were hampered by the limitations of older optical panoramic technologies, such as blind spots and inferior image resolution.” Nini concludes. “The fisheye lens, for example, in order to provide an image of sufficient quality for surveillance needs, requires an expensive customized high-resolution (3 MP and higher) video camera and extensive network support, which can be costly. The IMV1-1/3 lens, comparatively, is simple to install and designed to work on existing standard and IP surveillance video cameras. With the IMV1-1/3 lens, end users can see everything, everywhere at all times, with the objective of making everyone feel more secure.”
ImmerVision’s mission is to make its revolutionary panomorph optic design available worldwide by creating, developing and marketing panoramic imaging software and lenses. In talking with industry leaders such as Nortel, Cisco, Microsoft, Apple, Panasonic, Sony and Bosch, ImmerVision is “enabling” the OEM industry to provide this state-of-the-art technology to their end users, as a universal solution and logical alternative to outdated surveillance modes.
ImmerVision began its research activities in France in 1999 and subsequently moved its headquarters to Montreal, Canada to commence commercial operations. To date, ImmerVision has established six (6) worldwide patents for its visionary technologies.
