Each year, thousands of people walk, run, bike or skis in the iconic mountains of North Shore in Vancouver.
But some of those trips do not go according to the plan. More than 100 people call North Shore’s rescue every year because they were lost or injured in the dense and steep jungle of the coastal jungle.
The location of the lost or missing can be an exhausting task.
North Shore Rescue, who says he is the most busy voluntary search and rescue team in Canada (SAR), has been doing it since 1965. But the combinations of emerging technology, such as drones equipped with thermal images and artificial intelligence software, are helping people lead people to a faster security than ever.
It is a solution that combines the best search and rescue needs and the capabilities of new tools in the market, said Grant Baldwin, a drone operator for North Shore Rescue (NSR).
The subjects stand out “quite bright” at 60 to 90 meters in the air, he said. “You can see a person very clearly if you are in the right place.”
His team still displays his usual earth teams to rescue people. If necessary, they use an all -terrain vehicle, snow motorcycle or helicopter.
But drone software offers search engines the ability to quickly scan to ravines, streams or cliffs, he said.
The development of the functionality of the drones for use during a search has been in process for years, and other team members acquired their CANADA Transport flight certification in the last 12 months.
Until now, the team has cost around $ 40,000, an amount extracted from the donations on which NSR is based to function.
People can be trapped in the many streams, cliffs and ravines in the Vancouver mountains.
Baldwin said technology has a real potential to save many lives.
You may have already saved a life.
Looking for a missing hiker
At the beginning of December, North Shore Rescue was called to look for a missing hiker on Mount Seymour in North Vancouver after he did not meet his friends in a parking lot near the start of the path.
Baldwin remembers having been in his last battery during the search for that night and finally seeing the hiker with his drone equipped with thermal image software.
It was about two kilometers away, but the video of the rescue shows the hursionist curled up under a tree by his side, trying to stay hot.
“It was quite hypothermic. I had fallen in some streams. It was approximately –6, so if the team had not found that night it would be more a recovery,” said Baldwin.
Some searches extend soon at night or later in the morning when volunteers make their way through the thick forest and the rugged land. Being able to detect a subject with drone software and send land crews directly to those who need a rescue can save a lot of time, especially when a helicopter cannot fly, Baldwin said.
The software makes a big difference. Looking down in the jungle of the coastal jungle without it is like looking at thousands of small green circles almost without space to see anyone intermediate, he said.
But sometimes thermal images do not always work very well. In the summer, the heat of the sun can heat too much rocks and tops of the trees so that anything else is visible.
That’s where special artificial technology, developed in Squamish BC, could make a big difference.
The software, called Eagle Eyes, uses the camera of a search drone and combines it with artificial intelligence technology called Vision Computer, which in this case has been trained to see and detect anomalies in the landscapes.
For example, if a drones pilot scanned a search area several hundred meters above the ground, the software could detect a person’s movement or clothing below, even if it were less than a pixel on the screen.
Detect unusual characteristics
The feed of the drone chamber is broadcast to the pilot in real time and a circle will move on anything that the software interprets as unusual.
It works better when people search equipment are looking to use bright clothes clearly different from the surroundings.
You can see things that the human eye would fight to detect, said creator Peter O’Connor.
“Each pixel is mainly looking in the image and measures how well fits the image, how well it fits the color distribution,” he said.
“It helps to obtain that information on the map that the equipment is using as quickly as possible so that they can act accordingly.”
Baldwin is testing technology for use in North Shore calls and hopes to integrate it into your response soon.
The devices equipped with thermal images and artificial intelligence software are being sent to the BC mountains.
But he said that no amount of innovation from the group can compensate for people who walk to the mountains without preparation.
“Don’t expect the drone to find 100 percent of the time,” he said.
“I’ve flown on a subject and listened to him, but I didn’t see them and they were rescued about 13 hours later. They said it was quite comforting to hear the drone about them.”
