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PixController, Inc.
Company History
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PixController,
Inc. was started with the idea "how to capturing wildlife
photos/movies" using unattended cameras.
Founder and CEO
Bill Powers started the company in 1999, in the suburban
Pittsburgh location of Murrysville, PA, with a line of multi-purpose
motion-based controller products for animal scouting and wildlife
research. Today this type of
technology is ever present in hunting stores and catalogs selling
inexpensive "digital trail cameras", but at that time the
only commercial systems available were 35mm based, and were very
expensive. At that time this type of technology was out of the reach
of most consumers to purchase. Powers had the idea to design multi
purpose motion based controller products which would control 35mm &
digital cameras, as well as video camcorders so the average consumer
could build their own system at a fraction of the price of
commercially made systems. After 2 years of design and testing
PixController released the "Original PixController Board" for
sale to the general public in late November of 2001.
TIMELINE
2001 |
In late November 2001
PixController, Inc. released "Original PixController Board"
for to the general public. This enabled the average person to
build their own trail camera using our controller, a store
bought camera, and a waterproof case. This was the birth of
what's know today as "homebrew trail cameras". Soon after
its release, many people started enjoying 35mm, digital, and
video camcorder scouting trail cameras they built on their
own. They found the quality, functionality, and ease of use to
far surpass any units commercially made trail/video camera. Not
only did this attract hunters interested in scouting deer for
the up and coming hunting seasons, but this also attracted the
attention of many wildlife research groups and photographers
like the World Wildlife Federation, and many members of wildlife
filming groups such as Animal Planet/Discovery Channel, and
National Geographic. This
controller was first marketed to members of the popular internet
trail camera forum "Jesse's
Hunting Page" and was an instant success.
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Original PixController Board
November, 2001 release date
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First Sony LANC based Video Camcorder trail camera
system
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First
RS-232
"plug-n-play" digital trail camera using the
Olympus D-360 digital camera
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2002 |
At the close of their first
year in business, with several thousand controller boards in the
field world wide, PixController started to collect data from
many of their users about what they liked and what they didn't
like. It was this unique relationship PixController, Inc. had
with its customers that enabled them to release new "truly
functional" products and innovations at an unprecedented rate in
the industry. This attracted the attention of a local hunting
distributor, Penn's Woods Products. In 2002 PixController, Inc.
designed a digital trail camera for Penn's Woods Products called
the "Digital-Scout". This camera was sold through large
distributors such as Cabela's. Later in 2004 PixController, Inc.
developed the Video-Scout, a Sony camcorder trail camera for
Penn's Woods Products which was also sold by Cabela's.
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Digital-Scout Trail Camera
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Video-Scout Trail Camera
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2003 |
With the success of the
Original Controller board PixController, Inc. started developing
a series of controller boards for the do-it-yourself individuals
to construct their own wildlife camera system. Over the next 5
years PixController developed several cutting edge controller
boards into the market for controlling various models of
commercial digital cameras, video camcorder, and DVR's. Other
controller boards included slave flash controller, video light
boards, and wireless sensor controllers. In 2008 PixController,
Inc. changed the company focus to develop a new line wireless
cellular product for the security and law enforcement industries
and discounted selling controller boards.
Universal Board
Camera Controller
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LE Board
Camera Controller
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RF Wireless Board
Camera Controller
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Opto Board
Device Switcher
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Video Light Board
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Video Light II Board
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Slave Flash Controller
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2004 |
PixController turned its
sights on being the first company to release a wireless cellular
transmitted digital trail camera, the
CellularEye™
in the spring of 2004. This alone was a two year R&D effort. The
CellularEye incorporated a custom designed set of electronics
which was connected to a Palm Treo cellular phone. Custom
software was written for the Treo phone and was trigged by the
electronics to take a photo and email it to the user upon motion
detection.
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PixContorller's CellularEye™
The "worlds first" cellular scouting camera released
April 2004.
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2006 |
In 2006, PixController,
Inc. will release another first, the
DVREye™,
which will be the first "Digital Video Recorder" game camera on
the market when it is released for sale in the fall of 2006.
This video recording unit features a unique full color by day
footage and stealth IR footage at night recording mode.
The DVREye camera system captured the two largest wildlife
discoveries ever. In 2007 our video system enabled researchers
from
WWF-Malaysia to capture the
first ever Sumatran Rhino on video. Then in 2008
researchers from WWF-Indonesia
capered a rare Javan Rhino on video. Both discoveries made
international news and were broadcast on all of the major US
television networks. PixController, Inc. also designed
custom remote HD camera controllers which enabled Dave Sirak, news operations manager WFTV
Television of Orlando, FL to capture the
first ever NASA
Space Shuttle launches in HD. The NASA HD camera project was
nominated for an Emmy for "Technical Achievement" in 2008.
PixController camera system has also been featured in the History
Channels hit series MonsterQuest.
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PixController's DVR Eye™
The worlds first "Digital Video Recorder"
scouting camera. Fall 2006 release date.
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2007 |
In 2007 PixController, Inc.
started developing a host of wireless products for the wildlife
photography and security markets. Notability is the new
PixController RF controller released in the spring of 2007.
This new controller works in conjunction with a wireless PIR
sensor which can me mounted remotely from the base camera unit.
PixController Inc. has also developed new wireless video cameras
system called the WirelessEye™
which is integrated into our
Advanced Wireless
Wildlife WebCam which is now
online for all to see. PixController, Inc. received a Worlds Top 25 Webcam from EarthCam for their Wildlife Webcam.
This pioneering webcam technology combined motion sensing technology
with long range wireless technology enabling viewers to see many
different species of wildlife. In 2010 PixController, Inc. installed
the worlds first live streaming webcam broadcast from a black bear
den in Ely, MN. Lily the
black bear became a household name as she gave birth live to her
cub on January, 22, 2010.
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Remote RC Sony LANC control box
for filming your hunts
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Advanced Streaming Webcams
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2008 |
With our new wireless camera
technology we attracted the attention of agents working for ATF.
They suggested we design unattended covert surveillance systems
used in remote locations for law enforcement use. This type of
system needed to be covert unlike a trail camera. We broke down
our camera systems into modular systems to create a covert
system for this application. The result is our new UndercoverEye
line of products which are triggered by various wireless sensors
and sending a radio signal back to a recording box which can be
buried into the ground.
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UndercoverEye MDVR
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UndercoverEye Power Box
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UndercoverEye Raptor Cellular
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2009 |
After a 2-year long R&D
project redesigning our CellularEye camera we introduced our new
Raptor Cellular/WiFi camera system. The Raptor was the first
remote unatteneded camera system on the market which could
transmit photos in real-time via a cellular radio option or WiFi
radio option. Raptor system could also be configured with in an
on-board PIR motion sensor or wireless PIR motion sensor. The
on-board or wireless PIR motion sensor option is also
upgradeable. Lastly, the Raptor system can be configured with a
50 channel GPS receiver which will send you the location of your
Raptor system along with a link to an aerial map. The Raptor
camera system can even be controlled while in the field from
your PC using our
Remote Control option.
Raptor Cellular Camera System
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Raptor WiFi Camera System
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Raptor Remote Sensor Version
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2011 |
PixController, Inc. introduces a new line of wireless sensors.
These wireless sensor are a set of send a wireless commands to a
various PixController camera system to start the recording
process. There are many advantages in using a remote sensor
triggered camera system. Not only do they allow the camera
systems to be placed in more covert settings they allow the user
to use an array of different sensors.
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Phone: 724-733-0970 
