AN AUTOMATIC early warning system that can detect the first flames of a bush fire has been developed by modifying an ordinary CCTV surveillance system.
The bush-fire alarm, devised by fire-safety engineer of the University of Western Sydney in Australia and colleagues, uses specially developed software to analyse video images for the characteristic flicker and colour of a flame. The software looks for pixels which change from one frame to the next, and which also have a fire-like colour (Building and Environment, ). 鈥淚f it鈥檚 not flickering then it is not a flame,鈥� He says.
The team successfully applied this method to video clips of scenes with various lighting and backgrounds. Early detection can prevent a fire taking hold and doing serious damage, but conventional detectors, which pick up heat or soot particles, struggle in the breezy outdoors, while infrared cameras are expensive, He says.
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The system has promise, says of the University of South Australia in Adelaide, who was not involved in the work. But he suggests it would need further development to work with smoky fires, where the flames may be masked.
