US 6,556,981 B2Granted

Fire detection systems and methods

OwnerRobert D. Pedersen, Jerome H. Lemelsoninventors

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Abstract

A method for detecting fires and reacting thereto. A stationary, earth orbit satellite, drone aircrafts or piloted aircraft contains infrared detectors and optical means for detecting fires. A computer in the satellite, drone or piloted aircraft and/or on the ground analyzes image signals of the areas being monitored and, upon detecting infrared radiation of varying intensity and shape, indicative that a fire has started, generates signals which are indicative of the coordinate locations of the fire, the extent of the fire, the shape of the area(s) burning, the direction of movement of the fires, the speed(s) of the flame fronts, smoke condition, intensity of the fire, fire ball location(s), etc. In one form, a camera generates image signals which are digitized and recorded. Expert system logic is used to prioritize dangerous areas to assist in directing fire fighting. Information is transmitted to earth bound and/or aircraft contained receivers where fire fighting equipment is available for immediate dispatch to the fire zone.

Claims16

Dependent claims

An automated method for optimizing fire fighting decisions comprising the acts of:

a. generating and storing in a computer database geographic control data characterizing preselected parameters of a plurality of geographic regions of the earth;
b. controlling an imaging system to periodically acquire images of a selected geographic region;
c. generating computer-readable image data defining characteristics of the acquired image of the selected geographic region, and storing the image data in an image memory;
d. accessing the image data stored in the image memory and routing the data to a neural network image processing computer;
e. computer analyzing the image data with the neural network image processing computer and determining whether a fire exists in the selected geographic region;
f. further computer processing the image data of the selected geographic region and generating fire control data defining preselected characteristics of the fire;
g. accessing the geographic control data stored in the database that defines the preselected parameters of the selected geographic region in which the fire is burning;
h. routing the fire control data and the geographic control data to an expert system computer;
i. executing an expert system program in the expert system computer that employs prestored expert rules and analyzing the fire control data and the geographic control data to determine optimum fire fighting actions;
and
j. indicating the optimum fire fighting actions determined by the expert system computer.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/911,064Filed 23 Jul 2001 · continuation
Priority: 3 Nov 1995
Published: US 2002/0026431 A128 Feb 2002
Granted: 29 Apr 2003
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

G06Q 10/06
Administration; Management: resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation…
G08B 17/005
Fire alarms; Alarms responsive to explosion: for forest fires, e.g. detecting fires spread over a large or outdoors area
G08B 17/125
Actuation by presence of radiation or particles, e.g. of infrared radiation or of ions: by using a video camera to detect fire or smoke
Y10S 706/90
Data processing: artificial intelligence: fuzzy logic

Family

Application08/552,810Parent of this continuation · filed 3 Nov 1995
Application09/184,181Parent of this continuation · filed 2 Nov 1998
US 2002/0026431 A1Pre-grant publication · published 28 Feb 2002
US 6,289,331 B1Parent of this continuation
US 5,832,187 AParent of this continuation
US 6,556,981 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.