Artificial Intelligence can involve in everything. What about prevent catastrophic wildfires? Over the past three years, California only has seen more than 7 million acres burned from wildfires, and officials across the state are deploying cutting-edge, innovative ways to prevent further devastation by getting to fires before they spread.
In Santa Clara County, officials are installing AI-enabled sensors that measure air particles and temperatures to detect where a small wildfire may be burning out of sight before it grows into an out-of-control blaze.
Ten of these iPad-sized sensors already sit in the hills east of Oakland and are part of a 24-month pilot program out of the Oakland Fire Department. Cal Fire is piloting 400 “ultra-early” sensors from German startup Dryad Networks in Fort Bragg as well.
The solar-powered sensors, which come from the technology company N5 Sensors, measure gas, particulate matter and heat. AI then analyzes that data to detect where small fires may be before they spread. These data also make their way to an interactive dashboard to provide visualization of the sensor data and fire alerts.
Source: THE REPORTER
