System Architecture
How does ForestWatch work?- A commercially off-the-shelf pan-tilt-zoom camera scans its surroundings.
- The system's algorithms search in the recorded images for fire glow at night and smoke signature by day, filtering out normal ambiental phenomena (cloud shadows, dust from vehicle on dirt track, etc...).
- The information recorded on the camera site is communicated to a fire detection workstation, usually located in the fire agency's fire dispatch centre.
- When a fire is detected, an alarm is raised to get the human operator's attention.
- The operator can confirm the alarm, log it in the fire log and locate the fire because each pixel of each image is geo-referenced, i.e. associated with a ground position.
Detecting the fire early and locating it are the key deliverables of the ForestWatch system, with that information, Fire Dispatch personel can allocated fire fighting resources (fire bombers, fire trucks) to attack fires early hence increase their chances of controlling it.
- The information (camera images & fire log) can be displayed on the Intranet for office-based fire agency personnel to keep themselves informed of developments.
- The same information can be posted on the Internet for the general public's situation awareness.
- The information contained in the fire log can be email or SMS to airborne or ground fire agency personel for their situational awareness during fire fighting activities.
