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Automatic Life Jacket Detection For Drones

Posted by samzenpus on from the eye-in-the-sky dept.

garymortimer writes "Sentient, an Australian company that makes drone software, has given UAVs the ability to search for small, high visibility objects such as life jackets. From the article: 'Kestrel Maritime is a software solution that processes electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) full motion video (FMV) from manned and unmanned vehicles (UAVs). The Life Jacket Detection enhances Kestrel Maritime EO capability to automatically detect small, high visibility objects whilst searching wide maritime areas.'"

8 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Seems good by serps · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nice positioning. Search and rescue staff will still fly around in helicopters with mk1 eyeballs because they don't trust the drone. However, while trying to sell the image-recognition package as a bolt-on to a heli will fail due to pushback from observers, selling in a drone package will be considerably more palatable, psychologically.

    --
    "Einstein argued that [...] God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer." ~ Brooks
    1. Re:Seems good by camperdave · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Search and Rescue also fly around with pigeons which are trained to peck at a button when they see life-jacket orange. They hit at a 90% rate compared to a human's 38%. Humans in helicopters? If your floating in the drink I think you'd be better off with a drone. Granted, a rescue chopper could pick you up as soon as they saw you, but at nearly a 2/3 chance of being missed?

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    2. Re:Seems good by Daz3d · · Score: 3, Informative
      Coo.

      http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/PigeonSARProject.asp

    3. Re:Seems good by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 3, Insightful

      From your link:
      "Alvin Wong believes the program would be less expensive today because trainers could use flight simulators to train the birds rather than taking them up in real helicopters."

      Only if we could make flight sims with sufficient visual quality to fool a pigeon. Remember, our RGB monitors are adapted to our colour perception, they are not a good reproduction of reality.

      --
      Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    4. Re:Seems good by postbigbang · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Old habits are hard to break....

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      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  2. Re:Not just search and rescue by Kinky+Bass+Junk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Responding to mayday calls is never a matter of budget. It is always a matter of saving lives as quickly and safely as possible. While scrambling UAVs to search would be good to assist, you would still want to scramble a staffed rescue helicopter at the same time.

    --
    Anonymous Coward
  3. Re:Life Jackets by ISoldat53 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Life rafts and EPRBs on larger vessels tend to deploy automatically when a boat sinks. Having tried to locate an orange life raft from a fast moving jet, I know that they are nearly impossible to see. If this technology can locate something as small as a life jacket many lives could be saved.

  4. Re:Not just search and rescue by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk

    "It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometers) of terrain a day."

    Performance
    Maximum speed: 497.1 mph (800.0 km/h; 432.0 kn)
    Cruise speed: 404 mph (351 kn; 650 km/h)
    Range: 15,525 mi (13,491 nmi; 24,985 km)
    Endurance: 36 hours
    Service ceiling: 65,000 ft (19,812 m)

    Faster than a helicopter, and with these new algorithms, better at finding people. I say we send the drones.