OC Firm’s Camera Can Post Images Directly to Internet
IQ invision’s Internet-connected video cameras might seem futuristic, but compared to some of the technology co-founder Gregg Bone has experienced,through the magic of Hollywood,it’s a step back in time.
Bone, who helped create some of the special effects in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” with a motion-controlled camera setup in 1979, hopes to bring his high-tech imagination to traffic monitoring, home security and a variety of other applications through his newest creation, the IQeye1.
The device is a self-contained digital camera and web server that can make a peeping tom out of anyone on the Internet.
When connected to the Internet through a high-speed wire or even a slower modem, the device will post images to the Internet without having to be connected to a computer. That, combined with a patent-pending design that delivers power through the same cord used for the network connection, makes the cameras far more mobile than the slew of hobbyist “web-cams” on the market now.
The IQeye can take a 512-by-384-pixel picture every four seconds and comes with enough memory to store eight frames internally. Hooked up to a company’s computer network, storage is virtually unlimited.
The cameras also can connect with other devices and process information, which gives them logic- and event-based functions such as taking snapshots triggered by a motion sensing device or storing pictures only under certain conditions.
Marriage of Specialties
According to Bone, the technology is the perfect marriage of parent company Gordian’s primary specialties: digital imaging and computer networking.
Gordian is a 13-year-old product development and engineering firm co-founded by Bone. The 36-person Santa Ana Heights outfit usually makes products for other manufacturers, but after Bone and fellow executives found few takers for the web camera, they formed the IQ invision unit to sell the product themselves. Now they’re so optimistic that they plan to spin the division off as a separate company in the next year or so.
“It would be stupid to spin off now, because you’d essentially be doubling your administrative costs,” Bone says. Rick Davitt, IQ invision’s vice president, says he and others are waiting until the unit is financially successful before launching it as a separate company.
Looking for Partners
Though Bone says several venture capitalists and angel investors have approached him about funding the subsidiary, he insists he’s more interested in forming partnerships with distributors in specific industries. The most obvious markets include traffic monitoring and commercial security, but Bone says applications of the technology are limited only by the imagination.
According to Gordian officials, the company has poured more than $2 million into developing the product since January 1998. Four engineers work in the IQ invision unit, a number expected to rise significantly if the product sells well.
A few months after formally launching the product, IQ invision has several customers, including California’s Alameda Transportation Corridor Project and Harvey Mudd College in Claremont.
For the corridor, 50 cameras will monitor construction along a 10-mile stretch to deter fraud and vandalism and update the public on construction progress. Harvey Mudd, meanwhile, has installed a camera in one of its workshops so students can see from their homes how crowded the facility is or check on whether their lab partner is waiting.
Bone, a Cal Tech graduate who grows chili peppers in his spare time, says he understands the potential drawbacks his technology brings. (In fact, he half-kiddingly apologizes that the special effects he helped create for the original Star Trek movie were so good that they were kept in the movie and led to cuts elsewhere in the script that hurt the story line.
And the web cameras, he admits, present privacy concerns since most people expect some degree of secrecy, even in public places. But Bone and his colleagues contended that the cameras, in limited use, could actually create a more trusting environment by bringing everything out in the open.
The IQ eye uses a RISC-based processor (the simplified chip architecture used in everything from some Macintosh computers to increasingly popular handheld computers), digital imager and built-in HTTP and FTP Internet servers to provide a one-step connection to the Internet.
The unit costs $695 for the basic model and $1,195 for the industrial version, which can withstand extreme temperatures and rough handling.
The company is working on several enhancements, including a version controlled by a robot arm. But officials are reluctant to tip their hands too far.
“We’re trying to be a real company and not pre-announce too much,” Bone says.n
