LINZ. Dry forest floor, a carelessly discarded cigarette butt: Within a short time, a nest of embers forms on the ground, almost invisible. If it goes unnoticed, a forest fire will break out in the hours that follow, which the fire service will have to fight for days, if not weeks. The damage will run into the millions, and animals and plants will die.
Drone technology from the Institute of Computer Graphics at Johannes Kepler University makes it possible to detect such fires before it is too late. With the help of an application developed by JKU in 2018, called “Airborne Optical Sectioning (AOS)”, camera recordings are merged with measurement data. A view through the forest of leaves from above becomes a reality, as does the exact depiction of embers (see image).
The application area of AOS has grown steadily over the years. According to Oliver Bimber, co-developer and head of the Institute for Computer Graphics at JKU, the drone and its technology have been used for years to search for missing persons, record vegetation and conduct archaeological reconnaissance flights.
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Source: Nachrichten
