Kenwood develops wireless image transmission solution prototype
Kenwood USA will showcase the prototype of a solution this week at IWCE 2010 in Las Vegas that will let law-enforcement and emergency-medical personnel wirelessly transmit high-resolution still images from the field.
In addition to the law-enforcement and EMS applications, the solution will be ideal for monitoring critical infrastructure, such as water supplies and power utilities, as well as rail transportation facilities through which myriad hazardous materials pass on a daily basis.
“Those all are volatile and sensitive areas for terrorist activity,” said Mark Jasin, Kenwood USA’s senior vice president and general manager. “The system acts like a wireless babysitter for these vulnerable sites across the country. It’s a high-profile-target monitor.”
The system includes a high-resolution camera and a specialized encoder that’s interfaced to a NEXEDGE 6.25 kHz digital radio. It transmits images at intervals specified by the end user; the images can be received on any mobile data terminal or computer monitor.
The solution marries Kenwood’s NEXEDGE digital radio platform to JVC’s imaging and data-compression platforms. It represents one of the first efforts of JVC Kenwood Holdings, the entity that was formed in the aftermath of Kenwood’s purchase of JVC’s B2B and B2C video-imaging business in October 2008.
“It melds two pretty well-known brands in JVC and Kenwood,” Jasin said.
The JVC compression scheme that the solution leverages will enable much-higher-resolution images to be transmitted than law enforcement and EMS communities are used to, Jasin said. This, in turn, will result in images that capture subtleties about a suspect’s appearance or a crime scene that might otherwise have been missed, and provide emergency-room doctors with much more detail about an accident victim’s wounds.
“You would be able to distinguish the man on the grassy knoll,” Jasin said.
Kenwood also will be showcasing a mobile digital video recorder at IWCE that is another JVC collaboration, he said.