Most of my inventions started on a real project with a real constraint: a camera that had to survive the Dubai summer, a video stream that had to fit an HD pipeline, a vehicle that had to see all around itself. Some became patents; others stayed prototypes. All of them taught me something.
Patents
Four patent families granted in many industrial countries, plus one published application.
Method and system for processing of images
Ultra-wide fisheye video is cut into patterns, reordered with a key to fit a standard HD pipeline, then restored.
Multiple image stream processing
Several video streams are merged into one by reducing colour depth, processed as one, then separated again.
Method and system for stitching two or more images
Two fisheye hemispheres become two triangles, stitched into one rectangle — pixel for pixel, no loss. Cited by GoPro, Qualcomm, Nvidia and IBM.
Fuzzy protection of visual content
An image is scrambled by relocating its patterns with a key; only the key can restore it.
Method and apparatus for image processing
Image layers are mapped onto meshes, letting a viewer move a virtual camera around and through the scene.
Prototypes & engineering
Built with my teams at Doo Interactive and Doo Technologies, often from scratch.
Mobile Video Management System
A Hummer H2 fitted with a raisable 360° camera, perimeter sensors and a long-range PTZ camera, all synchronised on four onboard screens.
Styx USV
A tethered surface vehicle to inspect beneath bridges and inside caves for explosive devices: 2 hours’ autonomy, under 12 kg, deployable by two people.
Time-lapse rugged 360° camera
One of the first purpose-built 360° time-lapse cameras, made to last in UAE weather.
360° Video Management System
VMS software for full spherical streams, running without maintenance at bank sites for more than six years.
Smart Vehicle Management System
Video surveillance and fleet management combined: telemetry, driver behaviour, passenger information.
More from the lab
First spherical 360° camera (2001)
Lens, sensor, capture software, processing and display, all built in Bordeaux.
360° camera for jet aircraft
A fisheye camera streaming uncompressed 4K at 30 fps, dewarped onboard and shared with passengers over Wi-Fi. Co-developed with Otonomy Aviation, Bordeaux, 2017.
360° camera as a motion sensor
A USB-powered 360° camera warning law-enforcement officers of threats around their vehicle (iForce project for Rockwell Collins).
Rama Bridge, Bangkok
Four IP cameras stitched in real time into one ONVIF stream for a Genetec security system, plus a daily time-lapse and content for a panoramic museum screen.
Mobile CCTV capture for the A380
A unit plugged into the aircraft during ground maintenance to record and transmit onboard video.
First Responder Camera
A standalone dual-sensor 10 MP spherical camera for emergency units, also used for construction time-lapse.
Karez camera
A spherical camera with LEDs lowered into wells and karez tunnels, scanning in 360° on the way down.
Chameleon Scanner
An access-gate scanner reading shape and colour across UV, visible and infrared light, interfaced with Milestone XProtect.
Rapid Deployment Camera System
A long-range PTZ and a 360° camera on a pneumatic mast, deployed in minutes and powered for months by generator, battery or solar.
Real-time thermal stitching
Several thermal sources synchronised and stitched into one panoramic stream for armoured vehicles.
360° video conferencing for Avaya
A consumer 360° camera integrated with an Avaya system by reverse-engineering the VISCA protocol.
Combined security system for airliners
Onboard video synchronised with ground operations, viewable live from the ground and backed up on landing.
Geodyn aerial film digitiser
A precision six-camera system digitising aerial photographs from 1915 to the 1990s. Dubai, 2019.
ThrowCam
A rugged 360° camera for special forces: thrown into place, it streams to base, levelled by gyroscope and accelerometer.
Where the inventions went to work
Most of these ideas ended up inside real projects for real clients — and one of them became a product.