Wärtsilä Voyage has launched its Smart Panoramic Edge Camera System (SPECS), designed to significantly enhance marine safety by providing a 360 degree view of the vessel and its surroundings, streamed directly to the bridge in real-time, thus improving situational awareness.
In addition to eliminating blind spots with digital panoramic cameras located around the vessel, SPECS can provide a birds-eye view of the ship, considered a significant advantage when docking. The system’s cameras provide a calibrated range grid around the vessel to give precise measurement of distances. Furthermore, it offers an augmented reality view by connecting to the navigation system to assist in identifying targets and potential hazards.
Sasha Heriot, Head of Product, Assistance Systems, Wärtsilä Voyage, said: “Safety is of increasing concern in today’s maritime environment. Vessels have become ever larger in size, and the volume of sea traffic is greater than ever before. With SPECS, the bridge crew has a perfect view of what’s going on around the ship at all times. This takes situational awareness to a completely new level, and greatly reduces the risk of accidents and costly damage.”
Thanks to the full view – free of blind spots – that it offers, the system is said to solve challenges such as spotting of small vessels, monitoring of tug operations, or the potential inaccuracies of manual docking. SPECS thus reduces risks in both busy harbours and confined waters.
Multiple display and workstation options come with a dedicated software package specifically optimised for the hardware. The camera pods are designed to cope with the harshest marine conditions, and the system is not reliant on the global navigation satellite system (GNSS).
