A team of children from California have invented a system to help detect forest wildfires. By using CCTV images of forests and a team of volunteers watching the footage, the Forest Guard system hopes to spot fires in early stages while they are easier to control and put out.
The 6 children formed a team called Forest Guards when taking part in global FIRST® LEGO® League Children’s Climate Call competition held in May 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The idea won them first place in the Climate Actions section and impressed those at Sony to such an extent that Sony offered to enter a partnership with the children to produce the system. The children, who have themselves been affected by forest fires in the past, have had the system set up in Tahoe National Forest which is local to them for testing.
The Forest Guard system works by using CCTV cameras mounted on poles and working from solar power to take images of the forest. The cameras are set to be continuously panning the area, sending back the pictures via wireless Ethernet to a hub. Much thought has gone into where these cameras are placed to get thorough coverage of the forest and its more fire likely areas. The hub computer converts the feed from these cameras into snapshot images of the forest and stores them on a web server online. Anyone can then download the Forest Guard screen saver and get to look at the images taken, if they spot smoke on an image they can alert the system to a potential fire crisis by pressing a key on their keyboard.
Forest fires are responsible for a large amount of carbon dioxide released into our atmosphere, it is thought that a forest wildfire can produce the same amount as the emissions of millions of cars on the road a year. The issue of forest wildfires is thought to be escalating so technology to help track, minimize or prevent them is vitally important not only to those living near a forest but for everyone.