EyeOnBoard yacht monitoring

The author Thomas Friedman is making waves with his notion that our world has gotten so small that it seems flat again. I certainly see it in my little marine electronics world. One day I’m watching AIS equipped ships in Amsterdam Harbor, another I’m following scullers as they glide by a marina in Vancouver, Canada. All from my desk in Maine. And when I say “following”, I mean I’m actually operating a pan, tilt, and zoom camera with my Web browser. The camera is mounted in the cockpit of a test vessel belonging to a company called EyeOnBoard, which is using marina WiFi to give yacht owners (and its own 24/7 response center) amazing Web access to their vessels. The cameras are cool, but more important are all the sensors distributed around the boat. Take a look at this screen in the live demo (which understandably does not include the camera control). EyeOnBoard customers also benefit from the monitoring, and WiFi Internet access, when they’re aboard.