This Is What You Get When Former iPhone Engineers Make A Wearable Device For The U.S. Army

Yesterday we wrote about CENTR Cameras, a small startup founded by former members of the iPhone camera team.

Right now, the company is working on a camera that's poised to compete with GoPro's offerings - devices that can can be used in all kinds of conditions and still record great high-def video.

They're currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise $900,000 to bring their consumer model to market.

Here's what the consumer model looks like today:

Before settling on the strategy of going after consumers for their panoramic video camera, the CENTR team adapted their technology for use by several companies - and the Department of Defense. They ended up making a camera system that combines their 360-degree video capture with forward-looking infrared ("FLIR") technology, which is what the military and civilian police forces use to see at night and through walls:

CENTR's implementation mounts four FLIR cameras on top of helmets worn by soldiers on the battlefield to capture everything happening around them in high-definition video that includes infrared data.

The idea behind the device is that soldiers will be able to record everything happening around them and beam that data to drones flying overhead, which would then be able to send the streams to commanders hundreds or thousands of miles away.

To get an idea of how powerful this technology can be, you've got to play around with one of CENTR's demo videos. As you watch, click and drag on the video with your mouse - you'll be able to seamlessly look around as the video plays.