Method and device for automated early detection of forest fires by means of optical detection of smoke clouds

A method for automated early detection of forest fires by means of optical detection of smoke clouds, said method comprising:

• recording images with a digital color camera and transmitting the images to a digital data processing medium;
• defining assignment functions in a Fuzzy Logic system for the classes “smoke”, “forest” and dark surface” by analyzing a plurality of test images or test sequences recorded by the color camera with regard to a saturation value and a brightness value of image pixels of the images.

The method of claim of 16, wherein the method and its algorithms implemented via at least one digital data processing medium.