Technology
Technology that Sees Beyond
The heart of Aqueti imaging systems is our breakthrough parallel supercamera technology, integrating our innovative optical, electronic and software architectures. Conventional digital cameras form a digital image by capturing the analog image created by a single lens. One lens, one image. Our cameras form images by digitally combining data from an array of micro-cameras. These “images” become interactive digital streams that our technology allows multiple users to manipulate. You can control the spatial resolution, field-of-view and time window to meet your application needs.
Our processing architecture enables clients to manage the data and integrate with other systems for storage, analytics, video streaming and more. We power these complex operations with our Aqueti Camera Operating System (ACOS) and application programming interface, the Mantis API. Working together, this software and operating environment take Aqueti’s advanced imaging technology to the next level, allowing users to give the resulting media purpose and meaning.
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Pioneering Mantis Technology
Our 100 megapixel Mantis array camera disrupts centuries-old tradeoffs in camera design. Instead of one lens and one sensor, we include multiple sensors inside the camera with a dedicated computer processor for every two sensors – the “Camputer.” This supercomputer within the camera allows the integration of a dense array of micro-cameras with massively parallel readout and processing. The Mantis accommodates parallel image correction and compression for each micro-camera.
The physical limitations of single sensor cameras require a tradeoff of high pixel resolution for a narrow depth of field. If you want a large depth of field, you are restricted to a low pixel count. At a high pixel count, you are limited to a narrow depth of field. The Mantis camera avoids these limitations by adjusting focus throughout the array to capture multiple depths simultaneously with exponentially greater resolution than the most advanced HD camera.
Mantis camera systems achieve a frame rate much higher than competing high pixel-count imaging systems because we have optimized the pixel counts in our micro-cameras for video-rate capture. Each micro-camera achieves a comparable frame rate to a traditional camera of the same resolution. Building a single sensor camera with the pixel count of a Mantis would be extremely challenging at an equivalent frame rate.
The Aqueti Camputer
Aqueti’s 100+ megapixel cameras generate a lot of data. We built our camera array to include a large grouping of computers that can handle all the pixels that fly out every second the camera is in use. By placing several small, but powerful computers inside of the camera, we can manage all that data immediately near the source. Readout is accomplished through multiple channels that carry the video data. We “parallelize” readout by employing this multiplicity of channels going to a massive grouping of processors, making it possible to manage the data with the scale of video our cameras generate. Parallel processing – compression of all that data inside the computers within the camera – cuts down on the data rate coming out of the camera, another key feature of our Camputer.
ACOS
We distilled the latest breakthroughs in cluster computing and distributed processing to develop the ACOS. Our distributed processing architecture specifically addresses ease of data management, processing, and analysis for large camera array systems. The ACOS provides a robust scalable solution for managing devices, streaming data, and implementing processing pipelines on Aqueti imaging systems. The platform offers flexible support for real-time interactive streaming, custom video analysis, image processing and integrated storage.
The Mantis API
The Mantis API provides a programmable interface for ACOS configuration and management. Our API simplifies the complexity of the ACOS system into a set of function calls enabling developers to build custom applications that interface with Aqueti systems. The Mantis API allows these applications to control camera operation and generate real-time interactive video streams from our imaging systems. It offers low-level control of processing pipelines and a secure interface for the insertion of custom processing and analytics modules. Facilitated by the Mantis API, the ACOS transforms Aqueti imaging systems into a general processing platform for real-time data analysis in camera array systems.