I had the opportunity this week to talk to David Rose, founder of the Cambridge, MA startup LOOKOUT and chief operating officer Howie Hecht. The company is the inventor of the LOOKOUT, the AI camera system for boaters who could use an extra set of eyes while on the water.
Consisting of three cameras — as 360-degree 4K camera, a forward-facing 4K high-res daylight camera, and a forward-facing low light camera — affixed to the highest point on the vessel, the system uses a $9,995 Nvidia processing unit to identify, in real-time, what’s going on around the boat while underway.
Bell buoys, other vessels, floating logs, lobster pots, jet skis bent on mayhem …. if it’s on the water or near the water, LOOKOUT detects it and flags it on a multi-function screen mounted beside the helm. Add in integration with a digital chart plotter, an AIS (Automatic Identification System) receiver, GPS and night-vision (FIR) cameras and the result is transformational, especially for novice boaters who aren’t familiar with the perils and challenges of operating a boat in a chaotic unforgiving busy harbor.
Rose is an augmented reality expert — he was in charge of AR at eyeglass maker Warby Parker — and a boater. His inspiration was the question — why don’t boaters have the same intelligent displays they’re used to using in their motor vehicles? After all, most every new car comes with a video screen and backup camera that displays what is happening behind the vehicle, and overlays some graphical guidance to stop the driver from backing over junior’s tricycle or heaven forbid junior themselves.
The conversation with Rose and LOOKOUTs chief operating officer took me back to 1992 when I wrote a story for Forbes Magazine, “Smart Charts” about the first digital navigation charts and their integration with the then brand new global positioning satellite (GPS) system. After spending a day on Vineyard Sound with Woods Hole Oceanographic Scientist Arthur Gaines aboard a converted motor yacht with blacked out windows and portholes staring at a high end workstation with one of the first digital charts — a technology known as ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) — I came away astonished at the great leap forward yachting was about to take by doing away with the old analog world of paper navigational charts, sextants, bearing compasses, and the crude art of dead reckoning. LOOKOUT is every bit as big a deal today as ECDIS was 33-years ago.
LOOKOUT isn’t cheap at $13,990– but most decent marine electronics aren’t. The system works with existing IP cameras, so if the vessel is already equipped with a FLIR, such as the very pricey ($24,000) FLIR m364c for infrared night vision, it’s vision capabilities can be even further enhanced. Prices of FLIR cameras are coming down, so like most smart electronics, the price of the components are likely to come down over time. Available since last summer (2024), the system is available at getalookout.com
Installation can be done by the sailor with a few tools, but as with any piece of marine electronics, the best option may be to ask a qualified marine electronics technician to set it up for you. It works on both sailboats (mast-top placement) and motor yachts.
The demos of the product are incredible. Here’s one from YouTube that shows LOOKOUT at work.
I’ve long maintained that the most powerful application of artificial intelligence is machine vision, and LOOKOUT bears this out with an elegant interface and an implementation model that puts the required processing power onboard (as opposed to suffering from the latency and lag of a network model). With further iterations and an integration with an autopilot and radar, it’s not inconceivable that LOOKOUT’s technology could be used for collision avoidance, and dramatically reduce the high risks of the high seas. LOOKOUT may not lead sailors to the marine equivalent of a driverless car, but for some single-handed boaters it definitely will take away some of the anxiety that comes with ducking down below for a moment and taking one’s eyes off of the waters for even a second.
