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US 11,807,406 B1Granted
Drones that save people trapped in avalanches
OwnerOwen Charles Wengreeninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Avalanches often trap people under the snow. Although nearly all avalanche victims survive the initial avalanche, asphyxiation will occur after about fifteen minutes if rescuers do not know where to dig to uncover avalanche victims. Drones can include unique hardware and software that enables them to search for avalanche victims and mark the locations of avalanche victims to quickly and accurately notify rescuers where to dig through the snow to save avalanche victims from asphyxiation.
Claims17
A drone configured to help an avalanche victim, the drone comprising:
- at least one propeller configured to enable the drone to fly, a camera system, and an electronic device detection system, at least one marker configured to be dropped by the drone, and program instructions, wherein the program instructions are configured to take at least one picture, by the camera system;
- detect, by the electronic device detection system, an electronic device at a first location;
- and determine that the at least one picture does not show a person at the first location, and the program instructions are configured to drop the at least one marker to mark the first location in response to the program instructions taking the at least one picture, detecting the electronic device at the first location, and determining that the at least one picture does not show the person at the first location.
A drone configured to help an avalanche victim, the drone comprising:
- at least one propeller configured to enable the drone to fly, a camera system, and
- an electronic device detection system, a camera system, at least one marker configured to be dropped by the drone, and program instructions, wherein the program instructions are configured to determine an estimated location of the avalanche victim by taking at least one picture, by the camera system, of an avalanche victim search area, detecting, by the electronic device detection system, an electronic device within a portion of the avalanche victim search area, and determining that the at least one picture does not show a person within the portion of the avalanche victim search area, wherein the program instructions are configured to drop the at least one marker to mark the estimated location in response to the program instructions determining the estimated location of the avalanche victim.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.