Waterfall Solutions

On Thursday 18th February, Dr Moira Smith was interviewed on BBC Radio Surrey and Sussex as part of the Danny Pike show. Click on the picture below to hear the interview segment.

Waterfall Solutions' Managing Director discussed some of the work we have undertaken for the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) which includes:

• 3D persistent surveillance systems
• Energy harvesting for autonomous vehicles
• Wide area situational awareness
• COTS processing hardware for military applications

The main focus of the discussion was the vehicle-mounted technology we have demonstrated to the Ministry of Defence. In the broadcast Dr Smith acknowledges the contribution of the CDE for initial funding of this work. Waterfall Solutions also recognises and thanks the MoD's Programmes and Technology Group (PTG) for its funding of the current technology demonstrator.

Our wide-area situational awareness algorithms combine data from low-cost COTS sensors and provide fused imagery for 24/7 operation. In addition we are able to detect changes in the environment over time which is of great interest in highlighting areas disturbed between visits.

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(Image source; Crown copyright)

Recently Waterfall Solutions received press coverage from Defence Management Journal, the Guardian and the BBC when our technology was demonstrated at a recent Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) event in Oxfordshire.

The Right Honorable Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation in the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, was present and recognised the contribution of SME firms when he commented: "These companies are developing cutting-edge technology which could benefit our troops in the future. Harnessing science and innovation that could have a defence use will ensure UK forces will have the battle-winning edge in current and future conflicts."

Waterfall Solutions has been awarded four research projects by the CDE covering the following topics:

• 3D persistent surveillance systems
• Energy harvesting for autonomous vehicles
• Wide area situational awareness
• COTS processing hardware for military applications

Waterfall Solutions is a partner in the EU-funded SAMURAI programme, developing next-generation intelligent surveillance systems to monitor people and vehicles near critical public infrastructure.

Waterfall Solutions is responsible for data fusion algorithms across the programme. Our staff recently attended the regular technical update session in Katowice, Poland on 11th and 12th February.

Samurai was recently covered in a New Scientist magazine article, which includes some sample video sequences.

With effect from 1st January 2010, Dr Duncan Hickman (Chief Engineer, Waterfall Solutions) has been appointed as Visiting Reader to the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Surrey. He will hold this post until 31st January 2013.

Waterfall Solutions see this important announcement as the next step in forging closer ties with the University, which began with signing the joint Memorandum of Understanding last year.

The Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences consists of the following departments, affording Waterfall Solutions many opportunities for research and collaboration.

• Civil, Chemical & Environmental Engineering
• Computing
• Electronic Engineering
• Mathematics
• Mechanical, Medical & Aerospace Engineering
• Physics

The first such project has recently been announced by the University.

The Biologically-inspired Modelling and Applications (BIMA) research group in the Computing Department have developed models of human sub-conscious vision. Waterfall Solutions' expertise in image and sensor fusion technologies, combined with the ability of the models to incorporate various stimuli should result in novel approaches to early threat detection and identification.

Dr Hickman worked with Dr Matthew Casey of the Computing Department to secure Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA) funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to enable this work to proceed.

On the 17th November 2009, Waterfall Solutions Ltd participated in an integrated scenario demonstration at General Dynamics’ EDGE UK facility in South Wales. The scenario was based on a Combat Logistic Patrol travelling between Forward Operating Bases (FOBs), and showed how information could be shared between the patrol, headquarters and reaction forces in response to an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) incident.

In the live demonstration, our technology was integrated with General Dynamics’ Bowman system, which provides secure voice communications, a tactical internet and advanced situational awareness to the UK Armed Forces on operations. Our software was used to intelligently transform data about the location of a detected IED into a sound that conveyed critical information to the driver of the patrol vehicle, such as the predicted distance of closest approach and the directionality of the threat. The benefit of this approach is that it reduces the demand on an operator’s visual attention, as well as aiding the interpretation of any displayed information.

The EDGE event was very well received by the 200+ attendees, comprising General Dynamics executives and staff, customers from the UK military, and other exhibitors.