CAM-159
Smoke coming off a transformer
A power transformer with flame at one of the bushings and a black smoke column leaving the top of the frame. Around it, the switchgear, the control house and, behind the wall, the street with cars. There is nobody inside the compound, as usual. IRIS looks at this picture and sees what is in it: smoke and fire on one specific machine.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS understands
What it recognises in this scene
- flame at a bushing
- column of smoke
- power transformer
- control house
- street alongside
What this camera measures
An alert says something is happening. The reading says how much.
- 40 sSmoke visible for
- 1Visible points of flame
- 0People inside the compound
- 2Vehicles on the street alongside
- 3Occupied buildings in shot
- 16:20Time 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
smoke or flame appears in the compound and is still there seconds later
Then
- alert the control room with the camera, the machine and the video of the moment
- alert the on-call team and whoever has to call the emergency services
- keep the sequence from before the first wisp of smoke
The instruction that set it up«Tell me if smoke or fire shows up anywhere in the yard, and tell me which machine.»
What changes
What changes for whoever answers for the site
A transformer on fire at an unstaffed site is found out in three ways: the machine protects itself and drops out of service, somebody sees it from the road and calls, or somebody happened to be walking past. All three arrive afterwards. Here the alert goes out with the first column of smoke, with the camera and the machine named, and the person on call sees the picture before deciding. IRIS prevents nothing, operates nothing and replaces no protection: the only thing that changes is the hour at which somebody finds out. At a site with nobody in it, that hour is almost everything.
What people usually ask
Does this replace the machine's own protection?
No, and it is worth saying plainly. IRIS looks at the picture and reports what can be seen in it. It does not replace the transformer's electrical protection or any detector built into the equipment, and it triggers no switching: it opens nothing, closes nothing and discharges nothing. It is one more pair of eyes, placed where there are none, warning before the column is visible from the road. The person decides what happens next.
Can IRIS see the heat, not just the smoke?
It depends on the camera, and that is the good news: IRIS works with the ones already installed. With an ordinary camera it sees what is visible — smoke, flame, a change in the picture — because there is no temperature in that image. With a thermal camera it does read temperature, because there the temperature is the image: a hot spot on a bushing or a connection shows up before there is any smoke, and that is the difference between warning once it burns and warning while an outage can still be scheduled. Many substations already have thermal cameras installed for exactly this, and nothing has to change: IRIS watches them like any other.
Does IRIS identify the people or the cars in the picture?
No. IRIS does not identify anyone: it does not recognise faces, it does not read number plates, it does not compare against any database and it does not store who anyone is. On this camera it is not even looking at people: it is looking at the machine. The cars on the street are in shot and are neither read nor logged.
The real interface, step by step
This isn’t a video. It’s a slice of the real screen.
A summary of the real interface, played hands-free. You see one case from start to finish; what you do not see are the other screens, and there are many.
- It lands in the tray
- 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 does not 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
Whoever is on duty already has a job.Watching forty screens does not fit into the shift.
No shift has time to spare. IRIS watches all forty at once and brings only what needs to be seen, with its camera and its time. What happens next is that person’s call.
Tell us your problem and we will say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
We reply the same working day.