AI is keeping watch day and night to help protect Australia's forests
January 12, 2024 4:16 PM Subscribe
AI is keeping watch day and night to help protect Australia's forests from bushfires (forest fires). From detecting smoke rising from timber plantations to scanning bushwalkers' photos to assess fuel loads, artificial intelligence is becoming an essential part of protecting the nation's forests.
I'm kind of surprised this isn't already a thing, we've had missing/moved object detection, motion, license plate reading for many years on fairly entry-level systems. Lane-hawk built an entire company around "did a customer 'forget' a case of beer in their shopping trolley during checkout" a decade+ ago.
I think I'm like Inkslinger, what was yesterdays "Computer Vision" or just "Machine Learning" has been swallowed by the more scifi "AI" terminology without really delivering on what my childhood promised :)
posted by Static Vagabond at 5:44 PM on January 12 [2 favorites]
The system also requires a "human in the loop", with the AI at times struggling to differentiate smoke from clouds or dust.Kinda of a oof, perhaps this is really just 'new object moving vertically up from horizon' kind of detection.
I think I'm like Inkslinger, what was yesterdays "Computer Vision" or just "Machine Learning" has been swallowed by the more scifi "AI" terminology without really delivering on what my childhood promised :)
posted by Static Vagabond at 5:44 PM on January 12 [2 favorites]
OK, but I'm not getting how this scales up. Like I just did the math for Ontario...If each of these has a 20km radius -- putting aside hills or whatever that block the view -- then assuming only 1/3 of Ontario is forest, it would take about ~2800 of these cameras to monitor the forest. I could subtract more for "but this forest is near a town, so you don't need a camera because people live there" and "this forest is a park where people camp very nearby, so you don't need a camera because the camping people will see it" but I figure since way more than 1/3 of ontario is forest, that probably balances out just fine. I assume Australia is even bigger than Ontario. Can they really install thousands of cameras on towers?
OK, I did another Google. 85% of Ontario is Crown land (i.e. undeveloped wilderness). So this is definitely a no-go for Ontario. Too bad..the headline excited me. It sucks not being able to have a campfire when you camp, or waking up to gray/beige air. And again, I bet Austrralia is not only bigger than Ontario, but also has at least a big a proportion of undeveloped wilderness.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:10 PM on January 12
OK, I did another Google. 85% of Ontario is Crown land (i.e. undeveloped wilderness). So this is definitely a no-go for Ontario. Too bad..the headline excited me. It sucks not being able to have a campfire when you camp, or waking up to gray/beige air. And again, I bet Austrralia is not only bigger than Ontario, but also has at least a big a proportion of undeveloped wilderness.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:10 PM on January 12
it would take about ~2800 of these cameras to monitor the forest.
Fortunately, you can also use satellite imagery in this role. There are LEO options, though they aren't continuous, and there are GEO options (like the 3.9 um 'fire' channel on GOES-R for North and South America - though it's not great at Canadian latitudes) which offer continuous coverage, though they're limited in resolution. I know climate scientists are working to incorporate AI into their use of GEO data.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 6:40 PM on January 12 [2 favorites]
Fortunately, you can also use satellite imagery in this role. There are LEO options, though they aren't continuous, and there are GEO options (like the 3.9 um 'fire' channel on GOES-R for North and South America - though it's not great at Canadian latitudes) which offer continuous coverage, though they're limited in resolution. I know climate scientists are working to incorporate AI into their use of GEO data.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 6:40 PM on January 12 [2 favorites]
Fortunately, you can also use satellite imagery in this role. There are LEO options, though they aren't continuous... limited in resolution
Did you see the article linked below the OPP's article? It basically says pretty much what you just said but with a tone of despair instead of your hopeful tone.
I really want us to be able to just shoot water down from a giant garden hose in space (yes, I know that's not what they're doing and not what you're talking about...but I want it), but it seems like this is all very hard. The earth is so much bigger than it seems when you're standing in one little spot of it.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:20 PM on January 12 [1 favorite]
Did you see the article linked below the OPP's article? It basically says pretty much what you just said but with a tone of despair instead of your hopeful tone.
I really want us to be able to just shoot water down from a giant garden hose in space (yes, I know that's not what they're doing and not what you're talking about...but I want it), but it seems like this is all very hard. The earth is so much bigger than it seems when you're standing in one little spot of it.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:20 PM on January 12 [1 favorite]
tone of despair
Thanks for pointing out the link - I hadn't seen that! It's a good take on the LEO-versus-GEO tradeoff. But as for despair, when I do get down about climate change (which is often these days), I try to remember that I'm making a tiny contribution by working on the next GEO weather sat, and that my climate scientist friends are doing even more. There is still hope.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 7:41 PM on January 12 [4 favorites]
Thanks for pointing out the link - I hadn't seen that! It's a good take on the LEO-versus-GEO tradeoff. But as for despair, when I do get down about climate change (which is often these days), I try to remember that I'm making a tiny contribution by working on the next GEO weather sat, and that my climate scientist friends are doing even more. There is still hope.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 7:41 PM on January 12 [4 favorites]
I feel like, a year ago, this would have been an article about 'citizen science' and machine learning' and now it s about 'AI'--- which doesn't exist.
It does seem to take away from honoring the labor and joy of the project, which I guess was the point of calling things 'AI', to de emphasize the human effort, but it s depressing nonetheless
posted by eustatic at 4:49 PM on January 13 [1 favorite]
It does seem to take away from honoring the labor and joy of the project, which I guess was the point of calling things 'AI', to de emphasize the human effort, but it s depressing nonetheless
posted by eustatic at 4:49 PM on January 13 [1 favorite]
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I miss the days when I could just be an enthusiastic citizen spectator to great science.
posted by Inkslinger at 5:15 PM on January 12 [7 favorites]