![\"Xometry](\"https:\/\/images.prismic.io\/xometry-marketing\/1a18bc4d-3692-48b7-b75e-52517593a764_20170109-overwatch-img01.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=0%2C145%2C1000%2C562&w=792&h=445&fit=max\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOne of Overwatch Imaging’s products, Cropwatch, uses two daytime cameras that are modified to be sensitive to the particular frequencies to tell if a crop is healthy or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overwatch\u2019s first product, launched late last summer, is called Firewatch and is designed for use by forest fire fighting teams. \u201cWe took a thermal camera and a daytime camera and coupled them together with a big computer on board to analyze the images that those cameras are taking in real time,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt\u2019s designed for forest fire mapping, to create a real time heat map of what is going on that shows up in Google Earth and other data programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently there are only a handful of planes used nationwide for forest fire monitoring. \u201cThey fly over the Western U.S. and map these big fires at night\u201d Anderson said. \u201cObviously they can\u2019t go everywhere, so if your fire isn\u2019t big enough or you don\u2019t put in your request soon enough you may not get data for two or three days.\u201d With the Firewatch system, a forest service employee could get the same quality data, and then they wouldn\u2019t have to wait for one of those planes to become available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anderson and Davis developed the initial concepts for Firewatch in March. \u201cWe came up with three different prototypes and then around May we ordered all of the aluminum parts and expensive cameras,\u201d said Anderson. For the prototyping, Overwatch relied on two in-house 3D printers and Xometry. \u201cThe printers we have at the office are great for when we want to get an immediate look at something,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it is not the level of quality or refinement that we could get from a part printed by Xometry. So we had some parts that were built in-house, but the vast majority of the prototyping stuff was built through Xometry along with all production parts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the product was ready for market, it was then a matter of leveraging their personal network and attending trade shows to sell it. \u201cThere was the reaction of, \u2018Yeah, we were waiting for something like this,\u2019\u201d said Anderson. \u201cBut also because you have these thermal cameras and the amount of electrical and software work that had to go into it, it\u2019s quite expensive, so it\u2019s not something a company decides to acquire overnight. So there was some serious work to get that first initial order in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the customer response was strong enough that Anderson felt confident there was sufficient demand. So Overwatch set about developing its next product: Cropwatch. \u201cThat one we kicked off in August and we delivered in October,\u201d he said. \u201cFor Cropwatch, we were able to use a lot of the same design and intellectual property we had come up with for Firewatch. The main distinction is that the Firewatch includes a thermal camera to detect heat, whereas Cropwatch uses two daytime cameras that are modified to be sensitive to the particular frequencies to tell if a crop is healthy or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nick Anderson, Co-founder of Overwatch Imaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because Overwatch doesn\u2019t build the drones itself, just the imaging technology that can be added with the drone, it teams up with drone companies that sell their services to these large agriculture companies and park services. \u201cWe are selling to the large agri-businesses of the world,\u201d said Anderson, \u201cthose large companies that operate lots and lots of farms. The smaller, traditional farmers can use the consumer drones because they only need to map a thousand acres at most. For our product, we are talking about the ability to map all of North Dakota with a single UAV.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Overwatch is focused largely on expanding its penetration into the agriculture and land management services market, Anderson said there are plenty of new areas for which the company can customize its technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPart of the company\u2019s value proposition is the customized aspect,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are trying to solve challenging problems that other companies have, so that kind of branches us out in a lot of different directions. We\u2019re developing a core architecture that is mechanical and software based that we can then very quickly leverage into the right solution for different sized-aircraft, be it domestic or international. The plan is to grow, so right now we are hiring and expanding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Learn how two engineers created a hardware and software company that builds high-quality imaging technology for drones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":62518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,642],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-stories","category-innovation-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Xometry](\"https:\/\/images.prismic.io\/xometry-marketing\/8455bc3f-e80e-4b42-ba0d-8dd4bf7cdf43_20170109-overwatch-img02.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=0%2C90%2C960%2C539&w=792&h=445&fit=max\")
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