Much of the hardware and software came from the commercial market. The video analytics software was developed by a private company for the cruise ship industry, and the Navy team used part of its research funding to license it, while the same company built the pedestals to a design drawn up in-house at Port Hueneme. The four thermal cameras were bought off the shelf. The Navy did not name the company.
The cruise industry has a regulatory reason to build such tools: the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act, passed by Congress in 2010, requires passenger cruise ships to integrate technology that can capture images of passengers or detect those who have fallen overboard, to the extent such technology is available.
Of course it is also reasonable to ask why so many U.S. Navy sailors appear to prefer the obliterating sea to keeping doing whatever they are doing but abstracted from that this is a safety technology all large ships should have. This is one of those “Wait how did we not already think of this and deploy it!” things to me.
See this article about automated detection of people falling off cruise ships.
https://www.thetravel.com/overboard-alarms-can-save-lives-why-dont-more-cruise-ships-have-them/
