Process For Monitoring Territories In Order To Recognise Forest And Surface Fires

• US 20100194893A1
• Filed: 10/20/2005
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deutsches Zentrum Fã¼R Luft- Und Raumfahrt E.V., IQ Wireless GmbH
• Original Assignee: IQ Wireless GmbH
• Inventors: Behnke, Thomas, Neuss, Hartmut, Knollenberg, Joerg, Jock, Andreas, Mertens, Volker, Kuert, Ekkehard, Krane, Uwe, Vogel, Holger, Graeser, Guenter
• Granted Patent: US 8,368,757 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/159
• CPC Class Codes: A62C 3/0271 Detection of area conflagration fires fire alarms for forest fires G08B17/005
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 17/005 for forest fires, e.g. detecting fires spread over a large or outdoors area fire fighting forest fires A62C3/02
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 17/125 by using a video camera to detect fire or smoke

Abstract

The monitoring of territories in order to recognize forest and surface fires requires complex automatic and human-assisted processes, which ultimately must include the control of intervention forces. Disclosed are processes for the centralised monitoring of territories. A swiveling and tiltable camera installed at a monitoring site supplies images of overlapping observation sectors. In each observation sector a sequence of images comprising a plurality of images is taken, at an interval which corresponds to fire and smoke dynamics. An on-site image-processing software supplies event warnings with indication of the position of the event site in the analysed image. A total image and an image sequence with image sections of the vent site are then transmitted to a central station and reproduced at the central station as an endless sequence in quick-motion mode. Event warnings with all relevant data can be blended into electronic maps at the central station. Cross-bearing is made possible by blending event warnings from adjacent monitoring sites. False alarms are minimized in that known false alarm sources are marked as exclusion zones in reference images.

Claims

1. A process of monitoring territories for forest and surface fire detection, based on

a first complex of means stationed at a minimum of one monitoring site, said complex comprising a camera mounted at an elevated location with the ability to tilt and swivel, the horizontal swivel range being at least 360°

, and control and evaluation means connected to the camera and running image-processing software for

detecting smoke and/or fire in the images the camera provides, control software, event and image memory, and

an interface to communication means;

a second complex of means installed at a manned central station and comprising a computer including

an operating, display and monitoring workplace, control software, memory for events and images, means for mixing and outputting images to at least one monitor, and at least two interfaces to communication means;

first bidirectional communication means for image files, data, and voice to interconnect said first and second complexes; and

second bidirectional data and voice communication means to connect said second complex with deployed firefighting crews,

characterized in that, in accordance with the following steps,

a) the observation area of a monitoring site is divided into observation sectors each corresponding to the horizontal aperture angle of the camera lens;

b) the horizontal angular distance between adjacent observation sectors is selected to create an overlap between them;

c) the camera is aimed by positioning means at said observation sectors in automatic succession or in any order under manual control from the central station;

d) the camera, having been aimed, provides a plurality of images timed for adaptation to the dynamics of smoke and fire;

e) the images are communicated to the control unit for storage as an image sequence;

f) the images are input by the control unit to the image processing software for smoke and/or fire detection, the image processing software responding to the presence of smoke and/or fire by issuing an event message and data relating to the position and magnitude of the event;

g) if an event message is generated, the control software marks the event location in one of the pertinent images on the basis of the data concerning the location and magnitude of the event, and proceeds to compress the image and to transmit it to the central station together with an alert message comprising the identity of the monitoring site, the observation sector, the direction of and the estimated distance to the event location;

h) the alert message received at the central station is reproduced visibly or audibly and the image decompressed, stored and displayed either automatically or in response to manual request;

i) at the central station, a manual request can be entered and communicated to the monitoring site, which causes its control software to extract from the images of the current image sequence the image portions corresponding to the marked event location, to compress them, and to communicate them as an image sequence to the central station;

j) when received at the central station, the images of the image sequence corresponding to step (i) are decompressed, stored, and displayed as an endless sequence in a fast-motion display mode, and said sequence is inserted into the overall image of step (g) or displayed by itself in a large-scale format.

2. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that the control unit of the monitoring site

a) divides the image into several horizontal image strips before communicating a video image to the image-processing software according to step 1(f);

b) averages sets of several pixels from image strips below the horizon, but not including the horizon itself, with the number of pixels so averaged increasing between image strips in a direction toward the bottom image edge;

c) inputs the data-reduced images thus obtained to the image-processing software for smoke and/or fire detection; and

d) de-distorts the data on the position and magnitude of the event location the image-processing software has returned, such de-distortion using steps which are the inverse of (b) and (a), and then inserts the data into the original image.

3. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that the control unit

a) crops the image vertically by removing from its top and/or bottom edges horizontal image strips not relevant to the detection of forest fires and does so before communicating the image to the image-processing software according to step 1(f);

b) inputs the data-reduced images thus obtained to the image-processing software for smoke and/or fire detection; and

c) inserts into the original image the data on the position and magnitude of the event location returned by the image processing software, taking the manipulations of step (a) into account.

4. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that the vertical image crop of step 3(a) can be pre-defined for each observation sector.

5. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that the vertical image crop can be combined with a different camera tilt for each observation sector individually.

6. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that, at the central station,

a) the images from observation sectors, or a panoramic image with the observation sectors marked, from a monitoring site are called up manually at the operating, display and monitoring workplace of the computer unit;

b) the vertical image crop and the tilt of the camera defined for each observation sector are entered by means of the control software into the individual sector images or into the panoramic image;

c) the control software determines the parameters of such entries and communicates them to the control software of the monitoring site;

d) step (a) is repeated to check the measures of steps (b) and (c) for correctness and, optionally, to repeat the measures corresponding to (b) and (c) to increase the precision.

7. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that the central station has electronic maps and/or digitized and stored aerial photographs, referred to generally as “

map”

hereinafter, of the areas monitored, displays the

pertinent map automatically or in response to manual request in response to a message according to step 1(h) being received, and automatically inserts into that map the data comprising the identity of the monitoring station, the observation sector, the direction, and the to estimated distance to the event location in a graphic and an alphanumeric data format.

8. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that, when two or more messages according to 1(h) are received at the same or nearly the same time from adjacent monitoring sites, the information contained in all said messages is displayed on the map so that a cross bearing can be taken.

9. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that

a) the displayed information can be expanded to adjacent monitoring sites by zooming and shifting the displayed portions of the map;

b) the adjacent monitoring sites and their observation sectors can be displayed in response to manual request;

c) the observation sectors of adjacent monitoring sites which are relevant to the received messages according to 1(h) are determined from the map;

d) current images of the observation sectors so determined of an adjacent monitoring site can be called up manually at the operating, display, and monitoring workplace of the computer unit;

e) the images so obtained are analyzed visually for features the image processing software for smoke and/or fire detection failed to identify as an event;

f) the location of a visually detected or suspected event is marked in the image by the control software;

g) the control software derives a message corresponding to 1(h) from the entry so performed; and

h) the message thus derived is subjected to further treatment.

10. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that

a) mobile firefighting crews are equipped with position determining means such as GP5 devices;

b) the deployed vehicles communicate their current positions by radio to the central station on an automatic and continuous basis;

c) upon automatic or manual call-up of a map, the positions of deployed vehicles located in the displayed area are automatically shown on the map in a graphic and alphanumeric data format.

11. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that the display of image and the map can occur selectively according to the split-screen principle or separately on two different screens.

12. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that the sources of false alerts such as settlements, streets and roads, the surfaces of bodies of water or other elements where smoke or confusing light effects may occur are eliminated by

a) manually calling up and displaying at the central station images of observation sectors, or a panoramic image with the observation sectors marked, of a monitoring site,

b) causing the control software to outline by a polygon of any suitable shape the portions of an individual image, or of a panoramic image, which may lead, or have previously led, to false alerts;

c) causing the control software of the central station to determine the parameters of such entries and to communicate them as exclusion areas to the control software of the monitoring site;

d) determining manually at the central station whether event messages pertaining to exclusion areas are to be reported to the central station and causing the control software at the central station to communicate such determinations to the control software of the monitoring site;

e) in case the image processing software issues a message according to step 1(f), the control software of the monitoring site checking whether the message pertains to an exclusion area; and

f) in case a message pertains to an exclusion area, the control software of the monitoring site proceeding in accordance with step 1(g) if instructed to report the messages to the central station, but without assigning an alert status to such message.

13. Method as in claim 3, characterized in that the vertical image crop of step 3(a) can be pre-defined for each observation sector.

14. Method as in claim 3, characterized in that the vertical image crop can be combined with a different camera tilt for each observation sector individually.

15. Method as in claim 4, characterized in that the vertical image crop can be combined with a different camera tilt for each observation sector individually.

16. Method as in claim 3, characterized in that, at the central station,

a) the images from observation sectors, or a panoramic image with the observation sectors marked, from a monitoring site are called up manually at the operating, display and monitoring workplace of the computer unit;

b) the vertical image crop and the tilt of the camera defined for each observation sector are entered by means of the control software into the individual sector images or into the panoramic image;

c) the control software determines the parameters of such entries and communicates them to the control software of the monitoring site;

d) step (a) is repeated to check the measures of steps (b) and (c) for correctness and, optionally, to repeat the measures corresponding to (b) and (c) to increase the precision.

17. Method as in claim 1, characterized in that, at the central station,

a) the images from observation sectors, or a panoramic image with the observation sectors marked, from a monitoring site are called up manually at the operating, display and monitoring workplace of the computer unit;

b) the vertical image crop and the tilt of the camera defined for each observation sector are entered by means of the control software into the individual sector images or into the panoramic image;

c) the control software determines the parameters of such entries and communicates them to the control software of the monitoring site;

d) step (a) is repeated to check the measures of steps (b) and (c) for correctness and, optionally, to repeat the measures corresponding to (b) and (c) to increase the precision.

18. Method as in claim 7, characterized in that, when two or more messages according to 1(h) are received at the same or nearly the same time from adjacent monitoring sites, the information contained in all said messages is displayed on the map so that a cross bearing can be taken.

19. Method as in claim 7, characterized in that

d) the displayed information can be expanded to adjacent monitoring sites by zooming and shifting the displayed portions of the map;

e) the adjacent monitoring sites and their observation sectors can be displayed in response to manual request;

f) the observation sectors of adjacent monitoring sites which are relevant to the received messages according to 1(h) are determined from the map;

d) current images of the observation sectors so determined of an adjacent monitoring site can be called up manually at the operating, display, and monitoring workplace of the computer unit;

e) the images so obtained are analyzed visually for features the image-processing software for smoke and/or fire detection failed to identify as an event;

f) the location of a visually detected or suspected event is marked in the image by the control software;

g) the control software derives a message corresponding to 1(h) from the entry so performed; and

h) the message thus derived is subjected to further treatment.

20. Method as in claim 7, characterized in that

d) mobile firefighting crews are equipped with position determining means such as GP5 devices;

e) the deployed vehicles communicate their current positions by radio to the central station on an automatic and continuous basis;

f) upon automatic or manual call-up of a map, the positions of deployed vehicles located in the displayed area are automatically shown on the map in a graphic and alphanumeric data format.