Cape Disappointment is located where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. The locals refer to this as the "armpit of the Northwest," because of the horrible weather and safety conditions that the weather creates. When overlooking the Cape on a nice day, one can see three or four separate tides that affect trade and safety levels. The Coast Guard calls those their "nice days." When the weather gets rough, as it often is in that area, the Coast Guard has a lot to deal with. There is usually one "watch out" located in a tiny look-out hut overlooking the cape. These watch outs can be tracking up to 20 or more overturned boats, or Search and Rescue (SAR) events occurring at the same time. At times, the waters get so turbulent that the river has to actually be shut down.

In early January, QuickSet supplied the Coast Guard with the SeaView prototype. The SeaView system will help the Coast Guard in tracking and even preventing some SAR's. The system is composed of a Marine-90 pan and tilt, Flir Infrared camera, and a Hitachi visible camera. QuickSet’s SeaView system will be instrumental in detecting human bodies in the water, as well as troubled fishing boats through the fog and at night. On days where no "watchman" is on duty at the hut, the system can be controlled through a command center a short distance away. There, commanders can make decisions to shut the river down and see the events or water intensity without having to send someone to the hut. What makes this system even more interesting is that the video feeds of the river and rescue events will be accessible to those who have an Internet connection, provided of course that they know the password. With the SeaView system a commanding officer doesn't have to drive to the station when he is called in the middle of the night to see whether he should give an order that affects trade or rescue events on the Columbia River.

SeaView is a prototype system, therefore we expect a lot of feedback from the Coast Guard regarding upgrades we can implement which will affect their ability to save lives.