CAM-167

The street gully choked with branches

A narrow street with the roadway under water and, in the middle of it, the gully vanished beneath a heap of branches, cardboard boxes and bags. The water swirls beside it looking for a way through, and the parked cars already have it around their wheels. IRIS sees that the grate is covered and how much of it is still clear; it does not watch people and it does not read any number plate.

CAM-167 · STREET GULLY · INLET OBSTRUCTED

What IRIS understands

What it recognises in this scene

heap on the grate
clear grate
swirling water
flooded roadway
car with water at the wheels

What this camera measures

An alert says something is happening. The reading says how much.

1 / 5Grate still clear
26 minCovered for
9Items piled up
2Cars with water at the wheels
72 hLast seen clear
08:12Time 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.

the gully grate ends up covered in branches, bags or cardboard and water starts pooling in front of it

Then

alert the street-cleaning crew, with the camera and the exact gully
log the time it got covered and how much of the grate is still clear
alert again if the grate is still the same a while later

The instruction that set it up«Tell me when a gully gets covered and stops taking water, before the street floods and a resident has to phone me about it.»

What changes

What changes for whoever answers for the site

A grate choked with branches and bags takes away half the capacity on exactly the day you need all of it. It is perfectly visible in the picture and yet, today, it is discovered once the street is already flooded and somebody calls. The difference between the two is a few minutes of a crew with a broom. IRIS unblocks nothing and promises no street will stay dry: it says which grate is covered and since when, so whoever does the clearing knows which one to go to first.

What people usually ask

Does it tell a blocked grate from one that is always a bit dirty?

Yes, because what it watches is change and persistence, not dirt. One leaf on the grate is nothing; a heap that appears, stays and keeps growing is something. And how much is too much is decided by whoever runs the network: you tell it how much of the grate has to stay clear and how long to hold off before alerting, in one sentence, and you change it when the criterion changes.

Do you need a camera on every single gully?

No, and it would make no sense. You use them where there is already a camera and where the grate matters: the low points where the street always floods, the ones that block up every autumn, the ones in front of a vehicle entrance or a metro stairwell. One street camera can carry this rule and others at the same time, because what changes is not the hardware, it is what you ask it to watch.

What about the people and cars that appear in the picture?

They are not identified. IRIS does not recognise faces, it does not read number plates, it does not compare against any database and it does not store who anybody is. What it watches here is a grate and a sheet of water. Parked cars or passers-by in frame do not change what is detected, and no data comes out of them.

Other cameras

The real interface, step by step

You set the rule once. IRIS applies it every time.

You will see a summary of the interface, played step by step and hands-free. Each round starts with another case. The complete tool does not fit in a demo.