Forget Panning. Blink's Arc Can Merge Two Security Cameras for a 180-Degree View

"Amazon's budget security brand, Blink, announced two new cameras during the company's fall hardware event in New York City: the Blink Mini 2K+ and the Blink Outdoor 2K+. As the names suggest, these cameras sport 2K resolution to pick up more details. But it's the Blink Arc accessory that makes these security cameras more interesting. The Arc can combine two cameras and stitch the feeds together for a complete 180-degree view."

"The product of some glue-gun experimentation, a borrowed 3D printer, and some nifty AI tools, this accessory came together in just 60 days. "There's this fatal flaw with pan/tilt cameras," says Jonathan Cohn, head of product at Blink. "The cliché Mission Impossible scene, where they wait for the motorized pan/tilt to turn the other way and duck behind." Camera Fusion Blink's Arc is Cohn's solution, initially cooked up in his kitchen, and it's designed to eliminate your blind spots."

"He showed some photos of the early prototype, cobbled together using snap mounts and hot glue. He was able to get the right angle so that he'd walk out of the frame on one camera mounted on the front of his house and into the frame on another camera on an almost level horizon. The junior mechanical engineer, tasked with perfecting the angle and necessary overlap, used an AI tool to stitch the videos together, and despite some warping, it looked promising straightaway."

Blink released the Blink Mini 2K+ and Blink Outdoor 2K+, both sporting 2K resolution for clearer details. The Blink Arc accessory pairs two cameras and stitches their feeds to create an approximately 180-degree live view, addressing blind spots common with pan/tilt designs. The Arc evolved from prototype work using snap mounts, hot glue, a borrowed 3D printer, and AI stitching tools completed in roughly 60 days. Engineering refined camera angles and overlap, and the computer vision team applied dewarping techniques to produce an almost seamless stitched feed. The Arc accepts existing Blink Mini 2 cameras.

Read at WIRED