GAITHERSBURG, Md. and HOOD RIVER, Ore. – Edgybees, a leading provider of real-time geo-registration and visual augmentation software for aerial video, and HoodTech, a premier provider of air-borne imaging and related services, today announced they are collaborating to enhance situational awareness, using the powerful combination of Edgybees’ breakthrough software and HoodTech’s state-of-the-art sensors.
With this partnership, Edgybees and HoodTech deliver a first-of-its-kind solution, empowering users of aerial imagery to accurately geolocate operational scenes in real-time, using both Electro-Optical (EO) and Infra-Red (IR) day/night payloads. With accurate geolocation achieved, situational awareness is increased with the overlay of any number of GIS-based data.
“Full situational awareness is crucial to making decisions during public safety, defense and rescue missions. This is even more true during night missions, where Edgybees’ capability to also geo-register IR imagery in real-time comes into play,” stated Adam Kaplan, co-founder and CEO of Edgybees.
HoodTech’s Andy von Flotow, continues, “A challenge faced by users of air-borne imagery is imperfect real-time understanding of the geolocation of the displayed image. The user too-often must cross-reference HoodTech’s air-borne imagery with maps and/or other archived imagery. With Edgybees precise georegistration and subsequent overlay of selected map features and labels, users not only have excellent imagery, but also the immediate situational awareness created by the Edgybees annotations. The enhanced situational awareness enables faster decisions.”
The companies performed flight tests in February 2021 with HoodTech’s Mid-Wave EO/IR 3.6 payload, clearly demonstrating the ability to enhance a geo-registered live full motion video feed in real time. Edgybees software overlaid visually augmented roads, key landmarks and other data on top of the live video feeds with high accuracy and fine detail. The success of these flights further demonstrated the power of real-time situational awareness to make critical and timely decisions during high urgency missions.
About HoodTech
HoodTech builds an array of advanced stabilized imaging systems used for air-borne imaging and offers a range of related support services, often employing its fleet of light manned aircraft. Response capabilities include real-time streaming of visual and thermal video that can be fused with operational information and controlled by personnel in the command post or field command locations. For more information, please visit https://www.hoodtechvision.com/
About Edgybees
Founded in 2017, Edgybees brings clarity, accuracy, and speed to mission-critical and lifesaving operations that rely on streamed aerial video for situational awareness. Edgybees’ solution combines advanced computer vision and machine learning technologies to accurately match airborne video to satellite reference imagery in real-time. This unique approach enables real-time visual augmentation of the imagery with roads, key landmarks, and other mission-critical data on top of live video feeds – via our own platform or by integrating with third-party virtual augmentation solutions. With high-precision geo-registration and near-zero latency, Edgybees makes complex operational environments instantly clear – enabling defense, public safety, and critical infrastructure teams to accomplish lifesaving and high-urgency missions quickly and safely. For more information, please visit www.edgybees.com.
