Fujitsu Brings-in Technology For Slimming Down Highly Sensitive Infrared Cameras for Autonomous Ship Navigation

Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. recently made their success in development of miniaturized photodetectors for highly sensitive infrared cameras public knowledge. In coming years, this amazing sensor technology would enable shrinking the size of infrared cameras up to 1/8th of the total size of their predecessors. This new precision and size miniaturization would allow the cameras to capture detailed images from a distance even at night. The world around has high expectations when it comes to usage of highly sensitive infrared cameras for ships navigation under human observation.

Fig.1: Image Showing High-Sensitivity Infrared Cameras and Photodetectors

These newly developed cameras will be able to capture high resolution images from distance as high as six nautical miles during day as well as night. The photodetectors present in these cameras stay sensitive to thermal disturbances, however, since the device needed lot of cooling, it became imperative to shrink the cameras dimensions.

The sensor semiconductor structure by Fujitsu can eliminate the effect of thermal noise to quite an extent, it is now possible to have a highly sensitive infrared camera that can be held in hand. Apart from this huge success, the Japanese brand has also inculcated the AI technology for processing images captured by infrared cameras. It can recognize the ships cruising through waters from as far as six nautical miles.

Applications

The smaller sizes of these high-sensitivity infrared cameras positioned over the ship circumference will allow identification of distant vessels without any false positives. It will play a key role in development of autonomous cruising technology and promote much safer navigation of ships.

What Led To This Development?

The increasing volumes of marine shipping has led to steep rise in demand for more safe and sound ways for navigation. The level of anticipations and expectations is also high since autonomous ship navigation has come to surface.

What’s The Future Plan?

Fujitsu plans to bring this technology on a commercial scale by 2020. Once it is able to confirm the impact of monitoring system with new technology via field trials, not only will it put it out in market but will try to implement this technology in autonomous navigation systems. This will help the firm in bringing out more secure and safer maritime navigation.