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FAQs
BOB Universal Object tracker is an open-source object detection and tracking program optimized for the detection and recording of airborne objects. It was designed by a dedicated team of programmers and technical professionals whose goal is to facilitate the scientific study of unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) by providing academics and non-academics alike with tools needed for research.
Our focus is primarily on bringing scientific rigor to the study of UAP, but the implications of this technology extend well beyond that. Among its many potential uses include ornithology, wildlife biology, meteor tracking, atmospheric anomaly detection, and drone incursion detection.
BOB stands for BOB. It’s its name. Everything needs a name. You have a name, don’t you?
Because Susan just didn’t have the same ring to it. You’re focusing on all the wrong things here, let’s stick to the important stuff.
BOB Universal Object Detector is available for free via our GitHub repository.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. You can find our repository here. bobcamera/bobinstall (github.com). Our software devs made step by step tutorials to guide you through the download and installation process.
You’ve got us there! This software was designed for Linux plain and simple. We didn’t expect everyone out there to have a spare Linux machine laying around the house, so we made sure the software could work with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). This is a virtual environment for running Linux on an existing Windows machine. Virtual environments tend to consume a lot of system resources, so you’ll need a more powerful machine if you opt for the windows version.
Probably somewhere in between to be honest. The current version of the software is on the resource intensive side, even when running on a dedicated Linux machine. Please remember that we are in the early beta stage of development. We’ve identified a number of inefficiencies that we plan to improve in future releases, but for now we recommend the following minimum system specs:
- Later generation Intel Core i7 Processor
- RAM - 16 GB (min) / 32 GB (recommended)
- 1 GB Network interface
- 1 TB Storage
The current version supports cameras using the Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP). A wide variety of consumer grade IP security cameras utilize this protocol, and their ruggedness and versatility make them ideal for sky observation purposes. Most of the dev team are using Hikvision and Dahua brand cameras. As a general rule, the higher the resolution the better.
Not at the moment, but we are furiously working to make that dream a reality.
The future is bright, my friend! As previously mentioned, we’re working to add multi-camera and PTZ support, but we are also planning to add AI assisted event classification and a suite of ancillary sensors. You can find our development roadmap here BOB Roadmap (Suggested) · bobcamera/bobinstall Wiki (github.com).
We like that enthusiasm! There are a number of ways that you can help out. If you’re the handy type, you could build a BOB Camera station to help test the software while simultaneously building a global network of sky observation stations. If coding is more your game, there’s lots of code left to write. There are only about a dozen devs at the moment, and three of those are hardware guys who couldn’t print “HELLO WORLD” if their life depended on it. Please check out GitHub if you have the skills and are interested in applying them with us. If you don’t fall into either of the two previous groups, you can always help us by spreading the word about BOB on social media.
Slow down Turbo, it’s just not that easy. Bringing a highly refined, consumer-ready product like that to an international market is a technical, financial, logistical, and regulatory nightmare. We are all quite content with our day jobs, though we wouldn’t be opposed if others wanted to take on that Herculean task. The underlying software is open-source after all.
14) BOB seems like a lot of other projects out there. Have you guys ever heard of UFODAP, SkyHub, or Sky360?
Indeed, we have. Some of us have used UFODAP’s system in the past, and the majority of us worked as developers for SkyHub/Sky360 until recently. We had our own ideas, so we decided to branch out on our own. We don’t advocate for one system/approach over another, and it is not our intention to compete with anyone. Quite to the contrary. If we can facilitate the progress of other UAP research projects in any way we will. That is our guiding principle (see #1 at the top of the FAQ).
If you run into an issue while trying to get up and running, please take a look at the Install-FAQs.