Circle Optics Awarded $2.5M To Further Develop Panoramic Imaging Capability

Circle Optics, innovators of the Hydra, the world’s first stitch-less 360° camera have been awarded an United States Airforce AFWERX  grant of  $750,000 (USD). This Phase II award is for “Improved Image Capture for AI Training Simulation.” The award comes as a follow on to a USAF Phase I award of $50,000 (USD) to develop Real-Time 360° Imaging Capture of Modeling and Simulation.

“The next major step in the development of the camera system involves cutting the wires and going to full portability. 360° surround imagery contains large amounts of data and requires lots of computational power for real-time, wireless connectivity.” said Peter Stubler, Circle Optics, Principal Investigator.

During Phase II, Circle Optics will further develop its novel camera system Hydra 2 so that it can be deployed from a vehicle for the purpose of data collection. As part of this award Circle Optics is partnering with Steven’s Institute of Technology to design an integrated circuit (FPGA) to replace the need for a laptop to run the system. The Hydra is the world’s first stitch-less 360° camera.
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“The initial intent behind our technology is to make Google Street View have greater scalability. Developing this advantage enables greater capture of volumetric 3D data of remote locations, enabling the possibility to create a synchronous digital twin of the planet” explains Zakariya Niazi, Circle Optics CEO.