Expanding the international availability of OSCAR products for the recreational and professional segments of the marine industry, BSB AI has won wireless technology specialist Powertec Wireless Technology as a distribution partner for OSCAR advanced collision avoidance systems. Effective immediately, Powertec will cover Australia and New Zealand in the growing OSCAR distribution network, with its subsidiary Outback Marine Australia managing retail sales for the region.
OSCAR stands for Optical System for Cognition and Ranging and is the first AI-based collision avoidance assistant for marine applications. OSCAR systems are available for pleasure, commercial and government vessels of all sizes. Once installed, they combine optical and thermal cameras with advanced machine vision to cover the gap between radar and AIS: OSCAR detects, identifies and monitors floating obstacles – large and small, day and night.
“It is a priority for us to make OSCAR products and supporting services available to skippers in Australia and New Zealand” says Christoph Ballin, Managing Partner of OSCAR. “We are excited to do this together with the extremely professional team from Powertec, who have already tested our products on the open sea.”
Powertec Founder and Managing Director, Raymond W Smith, comments: “OSCAR products are a big leap ahead for collision avoidance on offshore sailing vessels, motor yachts and commercial vessels. We found the technology impressive, and we look forward to making it available in Australia and New Zealand.”
Something more about OSCAR
OSCAR combines leading-edge camera technology with artificial intelligence to offer a new class of high-tech safety systems and enhanced situational awareness. Scanning the sea, sensitive to temperature differences as small as 0.05°C or 0.09°F respectively and based on machine learning experience from millions of recognized marine objects, OSCAR covers the blind spot of radar devices and AIS: identifying non-signaled small craft, buoys and floating objects.
In addition, OSCAR can support search efforts in Person Overboard situations. Simple to use, OSCAR communicates with smartphones, tablets, chart plotters and onboard computers.
