Portuguese company develops AI module to prevent fires

To detect and combat fires, the Portuguese company Compta has incorporated Watson, IBM’s artificial intelligence, into its Bee2FireDetection solution. This tool can calculate the probability of a fire occurring, before it is produced.

Bee2FireDetection uses Artificial Intelligence, spectrometers, different digital cameras for video surveillance and thermography to detect forest fires at distances of up to 15 kilometers without interruption, 365 days a year.

The collected images are analyzed with IBM Watson Visual Recognition, which uses different deep learning algorithms to allow the system to detect any sign of fire, such as a smoke column, a temperature increase or a change of light, and to give the alert, practically in real time.

This system can also calculate the level of fire risk, combining Watson with a series of meteorological and environmental terrain data, such as relative humidity, wind direction or temperature. All this information is obtained from local weather stations and data from IBM’s Weather Company.

By collecting and analyzing this large amount of data, Bee2FireDetection can provide a very accurate forecast of the likelihood of a fire occurring before it occurs. Knowing this risk index allows them to establish an appropriate alert level, and that fire fighting teams can be prepared to act on time.

The artificial intelligence of IBM also allows that Bee2FireDetection can be a very useful tool in those cases in which a fire is already active. Taking advantage of Watson’s capabilities and the analysis of different meteorological and environmental data, Bee2FireDetection can estimate how the fire will evolve on the ground.

The system can calculate, for example, the speed and direction that the flames could take. Having this valuable and detailed information can help firefighters and other civil protection bodies to plan fire control in a very agile and efficient way.

K. Tovar

Source: EuropaPress