A New Take on Precision Aerial Photography

Overwatch Imaging’s TK-series camera systems are designed around a unique, nadir-pointing pitch, roll and yaw stabilized mount. Utilizing a step-stare scanning camera motion feature that increases the per-pass data by 4x, compared to traditional mapping systems.

Traditional tactical imagery payloads such as stabilized turret systems feature electro-optical cameras with small field-of-view angles and high zoom capabilities. These systems are ideal for tracking target objects from high altitudes, however they suffer from the “soda straw effect”: when such a camera system is zoomed in to see small targets only a small area of ground can be viewed. When the system is zoomed out to view large areas, smaller details/targets are not visible to the user. Stabilized “soda straw” video systems struggle when the application calls for finding small objects in very large areas, such as industrial inspections or wide-area land management surveys. Overwatch saw an opportunity to develop imaging systems that enable users to achieve a greater combination of image resolution and area coverage for low-altitude manned and unmanned aircraft. To deal with all the data, Overwatch also developed automated image processing software to turn imagery into geospatial intelligence.