By Romain FONSEGRIVES San Diego, United States -- When a wildfire erupted in the middle of a recent California night,
San Diego, United States — When a wildfire erupted in the middle of a recent California night, it could have been a disaster.
Computers watching live feeds from the Cleveland National Forest spotted what their algorithm had been taught to understand was a column of smoke. Over the last few years, its application has spread to include areas as diverse as weather forecasting, stock-picking, art and journalism. For several years firefighters have used a network of more than 1,000 cameras to monitor possible fire hotspots.
When the software believes it detects smoke, it displays a small red rectangle on the screen, and offers a percentage indicating its degree of certainty.Currently, the system can erroneously flag dust raised by tractors, insects in front of the camera or even a bit of fog.