UK: Image processing firm Cambridge Pixel Ltd. announced the tool kit, SPx-ECDIS, for adding radar data to Windows-based commercial ship displays. The kit is for ECDIS (electronic chart display and information systems), and allows the adding of radar interfacing, scan conversion, chart display, target tracking, a GPS and record/replay.
ECDIS is an approved system which displays information from electronic navigational charts and digital nautical charts and integrates these with navigational sensors to provide continuous position and navigational safety information.
“The introduction of the kit was driven by new International Maritime Organisation regulations which come into force from July 2012,” said the firm. “These regulations mandate most large passenger ships, tankers and cargo vessels to integrate ECDIS into bridge procedures.”
“The migration of paper chart navigation to ECDIS navigation has resulted in a frenzy of activity among the big bridge system manufacturers and suppliers of stand-alone ECDIS systems for the retrofit market,” said Cambridge Pixel MD David Johnson. “Our toolkit is likely to be attractive to system integrators, particularly those developing a localised in-country ECDIS offering, but also to any new entrant looking for a low-risk way into the market.”
The radar interface is based on the HPx-200C (for PCI) or HPx-200Ce (PCI-express) card, which provides a flexible interface for a range of radar signal types.
The kit includes a scan converter which presents a plan position indicator radar display image with configurable view, colour, brightness, persistence and trail history. Options allow for underlay/overlay graphics from navigational charts. “For chart display, the ECDIS application can take responsibility for this, leaving SPx-ECDIS to handle the radar, or else SPx-ECDIS can provide a full S57 chart display capability,” said the firm.
The target tracker processes radar video to extract and follow objects of interest, with manual or automatic target acquisition. Areas of acquisition can be programmed as latitude/longitude polygons, or the software can use a built-in map database to automatically suppress objects on land.
Source: Cambridge Pixel
