Isreal’s Elbit Systems has revealed their surveillance beast called SkEye that performs Wide Area Persistent Surveillance (WAPS) video surveillance using airborne manned and unmanned platforms. SkEye is a very powerful system that enables security or military forces to offer a billion-pixel coverage of an area up to 80 square kilometers large in real-time, with the actual size of the area depending on the sensor’s height.
The system employs a single payload that integrates multiple cameras which combine to provide an image of one billion pixels in size. The SkEye system can be attached to a light manned aircraft or even large Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), as already seen with the military operations in at least two countries.
The system consists of an Electro-Optic (EO) sensor, image processor, data storage units, and sends data to the ground-based SkEye Control and Management Center for quick processing and analysis. The team can also configure specific flag events using a customized alert system.
SkEye can observe and record a much wider area than any mainstream UAS-carried Visual Intelligence (VISINT) systems which makes it an incredibly powerful tool. SkEye can also switch between real-time or “back in time” video footage within the covered area, and the system allows ten different areas to be analyzed in depth by different users at the same time!
Watch the system in action in the video below!
https://youtu.be/3rc_PgQGxzw