Cobham enhances rescue dogs' capabilities
Cobham’s COLCAM – Canine Collar Mounted Wireless Camera System, turns dogs trained for surveillance, bomb detection and rescue in to the eyes, ears, and even voice of rescuers. Weighing only half a kilogram, the device carries a low-light camera and illuminator, plus a microphone, audio speaker, transmission system and battery and fits to any medium to large sized working dog collar.
With their powerful sense of smell and ability to search areas too confined or unwieldy for humans, dogs have become part of rescue legend. With the COLCAM, rescuers can see what the rescue dog is seeing, hear local sounds and even communicate with the dog or rescue victim. Cobham’s state of the art Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (COFDM) microwave transmission system gives excellent image quality even when the dog is moving at speed out of direct line of sight, at typical ranges of 300 metres.
“Combining the legendary detection ability of dogs with the COLCAM gives victims a much better chance of survival,” said Cobham Tactical Communication and Surveillance’s Andrew Tilbury. “The ability to see, hear and even talk with the victim dramatically increases our situational awareness, which inevitably helps create the safest possible rescue plan for both victim and rescuer.”
The COLCAM system includes the collar device and a robust portable Cobham NanoVue wireless receiver, which can be hand held or chest mounted. The receiver includes a high resolution screen, video and audio output and Internet Protocol (IP) streaming, allowing video received from the dog collar to be streamed immediately to control rooms or other rescuers. It also has optional built in recording.
