As digital recorders get smaller they become suitable for more applications, such as integration into the soldier’s combat suit or weapon system. One such device is the Guncam gun camera recorder, developed by Macroswiss. This unit has been developed for use by Police Forces and Armies that need to record firefights from the user’s perspective, for accountability purposes. The miniature DVR unit can be connected to a weapon, attached to the belt, or carried in a pouch on the vest (in which case the camera on the weapon is connected to the recorder by a spiral cable). The camera can be set to record video only upon release of the safety, in user-switchable recording mode where the user decides when to record, or in continuous recording mode. The data is recorded on a compact flash card.
Miniature DVR devices are suitable for ‘wearable’ man-portable applications. As a digital wallet, Micro-DVR can store up to 60,000 high-resolution digital photos (1024×768). The Micro-DVR also has a built-in microphone for recording audio. The Enhanced Wavelet algorithm, with high quality video capture and play back at 720 x 480 resolution, enables storage of compressed video in commercially standard MPEG 4 format (320 x 240 pixels, 25~28 frames per second), recorded on a built-in 20 GB 2.5″ hard drive. The units can be upgraded with a 40 GB drive. Micro DVR supports continuous recording of a single video and audio channel for up to 40 hours. Recordings can be archived to PC via a built-in USB 2.0 interface. It can also store digital photo files and display them from its built-in 3.5″ Full-Color LCD screen, a TV monitor, or a projector.
The Israeli Army is currently using several different digital recorders, both imported and locally made. Two new digital video recorders were recently unveiled by Goldtech Technologies. The first is the ultra compact VCAP, which connects to a video source such as a video camera, ground sensor, weapon sight, etc. VCAP compresses video to the MPEG-2 standard, which preserves details better than MPEG 4. The data is recorded on either a hard disk or solid state memory. A larger system is the RAV-2, a dual-channel digital recorder with a storage capacity of 100GB, sufficient for 24 hours of operation. RAV2 has a built-in mini display enabling instant playback or monitoring. It is equipped with a remote control unit for convenient field operation. It can also play back a video stream to any PC, TV or standard video monitor.
Continue reading this article:
