CAM-149
Rockfall on the access road
The access road to the dam, with the reservoir on one side and the cut slope on the other. A fall of earth and blocks has covered the right-hand lane and reaches the centre line: there are loose stones scattered across the surface and blocks the size of a kerbstone in the middle of the lane. Further up, a red and white barrier with a cone closes the road, and a white service pickup is stopped on the other side. The lane on the reservoir side is still clear.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS understands
What it recognises in this scene
- material on the carriageway
- road cut slope
- vehicle stopped on the far side
- barrier closing the road
- carriageway still clear
What this camera measures
An alert says something is happening. The reading says how much.
- 14 minOn the carriageway for
- 1 / 2Lanes blocked
- 14Loose blocks counted
- 1Vehicles stopped on the far side
- 0People in shot
- 08:50Time
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
material appears on the access road carriageway that was not there before and stays there
Then
- alert whoever is on call, with the camera, the spot and the video of the moment it came down
- say how much of the carriageway is covered and whether anything can get through
- keep watching that same stretch and alert again if more comes down
The instruction that set it up«Tell me if material falls onto the access road, even if no vehicle goes past, and tell me how much of the carriageway is left clear.»
What changes
What changes for whoever answers for the site
The access road is the only thing between the dam and anybody reaching it. If it is cut, the crew does not arrive, the lorry does not arrive and neither does whoever has to operate a gate — and that matters more on the day you need it than in all the rest of the year. These roads are driven a few times a day, and sometimes not even that, so today a rockfall is discovered when somebody runs into it. With IRIS the alert goes out while the material is on the carriageway, with the time and the spot, so you can close the road and tell whoever was about to drive up before they set off. IRIS does not clear the road and does not promise nothing else will come down: it says that something has.
What people usually ask
Can it tell a stone from a shadow or a patch of water?
What is detected is material that appears on the carriageway where there was nothing before and then stays put. A shadow moves with the sun and a patch of water dries; a block does not. Even so, it is a reading taken from the picture: in full darkness or with the road hidden by fog, the reading is worth less, and the system says so instead of inventing one.
And if the one going past is one of the site's own vehicles?
A vehicle going past triggers nothing: the rule looks at material that appears and stays, not at things that cross. And even if it stops, IRIS does not identify it: it does not read number plates, it does not recognise faces and it does not store who anyone is. All it counts is that there is a vehicle stopped short of the blockage, which is exactly the fact you need in order to know whether somebody is waiting on the other side.
Can it warn before it comes down?
No. IRIS does not predict. It reports what is happening, not what is going to happen, and a camera does not know what is inside a slope. What does change is the time between something falling and somebody finding out: today that is hours, and sometimes it is the next day.
See it for yourself
A camera looks. IRIS understands what it sees.
An extract of the real screen, no voice-over and hands-free. Each round poses another situation. What sits behind it is a good deal bigger than what you see.
- The hour, as a grid
- You look where it's dark
- You jump to that minute
Next step
Who sees the sales that never reach the till?
10 cases: 4 raise an alert when something happens and 6 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
Who is watching when the load swings over somebody?
11 cases: 9 raise an alert when something happens and 2 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
And the best part
Ten cameras or four thousand:not one of them goes unwatched.
The day IRIS starts, they all start: the ten in a school or the four thousand in a whole network. And it only raises its hand when the thing you asked for happens.
Tell us your problem and we will say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
We reply the same working day.