CAM-416
The intake reservoir woke up green
Mid-morning at the reservoir the drinking water comes from. Away to the right the water is still blue. In front of the intake tower it isn’t: a thick green mat covers the whole shoreline and curls in swirls right up to the intake screens. Two technicians in hard hats and safety vests look at it from the walkway. The camera sees the color and how far it has spread. Whether there’s a toxin in it can’t be seen: that’s for the laboratory.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS understands
What it recognizes in this scene
- green mat on the water
- intake tower
- water intake screens
- two technicians on the walkway
- clear water further out
What this camera measures
An alert says something’s happening. The reading says how much.
- 3days in a row with green water
- 5 htime with the mat touching the screens
- 2people on the walkway
- 2alerts opened today at this intake
- 11:20time of the alert
The figures on this screen are an example from the illustration, not any client’s measurement.
The rule
You decide once. IRIS applies it always.
If
the color of the water in front of the intake changes against previous days, or a floating mat appears on the surface
Then
- opens an alert with the camera, the time and the image compared with previous days
- notifies the intake supervisor so that sampling and laboratory analysis are ordered
- keeps the day’s series of images to show where the mat has advanced
The instruction that set it up«Tell me if the water in front of the intake changes color or if a mat appears on the surface.»
What changes
What changes for whoever answers for the plant
In July heat the mat spreads in three days, and the water manager finds out when the lab result comes back: two days late. IRIS compares today’s image with yesterday’s and warns the same day that the mat has appeared and that it has reached the intake screens. With that, somebody is sent out to take samples that morning and the decision about changing the draw-off depth can be made. The alert doesn’t say the water is toxic. It says somebody has to go and look, and analyze.
What people usually ask
Does IRIS detect cyanotoxins in the water?
No, and this is the single most important limit in the whole sector: the color is visible, the toxin isn’t. A camera sees that the water has changed color and that there’s a mat on the surface. Whether that mat carries cyanotoxins, and how much, is measured in a laboratory from a sample. IRIS says go and look and go and analyze; it never says the water is toxic, and never says it’s safe.
So what’s the alert good for?
To win a day. A bloom shows up on camera the moment it appears, while the walking round or the lab result arrive later. The alert puts someone on sampling that same morning, and it records what time the water changed and how far the mat spread. That timeline is worth having afterward, for the internal report and for the basin authority.
What if the water turns green for another reason?
It happens, which is why the alert is called a color change and not a bloom. A discharge, pollen, mud after a storm or the reflection of the hillside at dusk also change the picture. IRIS shows the comparison with previous days and a person looks before anything is moved. The rule about which change deserves an alert, and what time of day the comparison is made, is written by whoever runs the intake.
Other cameras
- CAM-400 · Water is coming up through the cover and the street is a river
- CAM-401 · The clarifier has filled with foam and it’s going over the weir
- CAM-402 · The screen is packed with wipes and the water isn’t getting through
- CAM-403 · A tree has come down the channel and is blocking the intake
- CAM-404 · A jet is spraying from the flange and the puddle keeps growing
- CAM-405 · The container plugged in isn’t the one that belongs there
Simulation · how IRIS works
Watch what happens. Then watch what IRIS does with it.
Not a recorded video and not a drawing: it’s a summary of the real tool, with a different case each time round. The whole tool doesn’t fit in a box.
- The alert fires
- You open it
- You confirm or dismiss
Next step
What can a camera see without pointing at anyone?
13 cases: 9 raise an alert when something happens and 4 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
What if the outage doesn’t start with an attack?
13 cases, and in every one of them IRIS raises an alert when something happens. You see each image as it is, and then with what it understands on top.
And the best part
Nothing changes on the wall.On the screen, everything changes.
Same brackets, same cabling, same cameras. The only difference is that those images are now understood as they come in, instead of waiting for someone to open them.
Tell us your problem and we’ll say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
A person answers, the same working day.