CAM-558
Smoke coming out of one module in the battery block
Power room, small hours. From the block that holds the current up when the mains fails, a column of white smoke is rising, and behind the grille of one module there is an orange glow. The red beacon on the wall is already lit. A technician is in the room a few metres away, looking at the block. IRIS sees the smoke, sees the glow, says which module they are coming from and keeps the video from before the first wisp.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS understands
What it recognises in this scene
- column of smoke
- module with an orange glow
- power and battery block
- column of modules, nothing showing
- control panel of the block
- alarm beacon lit
- alarm call point
- technician in the room
- extinguisher on the wall
What this camera measures
An alert says something is happening. The reading says how much.
- 40 sSmoke in sight for
- 1,4 m+0,9 mHeight of the column
- 1Modules showing something
- 1People in the room
- 02:13:48Video starts at
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 a glow appears in the power block
Then
- alert the duty shift and the control room with the camera and the module
- open the live video and the thermal camera on the same point side by side
- save the video from one minute before the first wisp of smoke
The instruction that set it up«Tell me if smoke or a glow appears in the power room, and tell me which module it is coming from.»
What changes
What changes for whoever answers for physical security on site
The clock runs differently here. The technician in the room has already seen it; the people who are not in the room have not. The alert goes out with the room, the camera and the module, the video opens in the control room, and whoever has to decide about evacuating or cutting power decides while looking, not while imagining. And there is a second part worth understanding: this camera sees visible light, which means it sees the problem once it shows — smoke and a glow. The same point has another perspective, a thermal camera, which does not see smoke: it sees heat. It sees the module heating up while there is still nothing to look at. Two cameras on the same block, detecting different things, and that is exactly why there are two.
What people usually ask
Is the image from this camera a thermal one?
No, and it is worth saying so: this is an ordinary camera, visible light. What it sees is smoke and an orange glow — the problem once it shows. It is here because that too has to be seen straight away and with the module pointed out, and because at two in the morning, in a room with nobody in it, that smoke can take a long time to reach a corridor where somebody walks.
So what is the thermal camera for?
To see it earlier. A thermal camera does not see smoke: it sees heat, and heat comes long before smoke. It is the second perspective on the same point: two cameras looking at the same block, each with its own slice of reality. The ordinary one shows what is happening; the thermal one shows where something is heating up while there is still nothing to show. In a power room, that difference in time is everything you have.
Does IRIS trigger the extinguishing system or cut the power?
No. Detecting is not deciding, and deciding is not acting. IRIS sees, warns and keeps the evidence. The extinguishing system is triggered by the fire system, which has its own sensors and its own rules, and the order to evacuate or to cut power comes from a person. What changes is that this person decides while looking at the picture of the exact module, with video from before the first wisp, instead of deciding from a line on a screen.
Other cameras
- CAM-547 · Two people go through and only one showed a badge
- CAM-548 · Both of them inside the airlock, inner door still open
- CAM-549 · Someone alone in an aisle where nobody goes unescorted
- CAM-550 · A wooden wedge holding the hall door wide open
- CAM-551 · It looks like routine maintenance, and it probably is
- CAM-552 · The cabinet was left open and nobody is standing at it
A different case every time
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.
- You draw the line
- It counts by itself
- A number comes out
Next step
Who is watching the yard screen when the fight starts?
17 cases: 16 raise an alert when something happens and 1 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
How long before somebody comes down that corridor at four in the morning?
13 cases: 12 raise an alert when something happens and 1 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
And the best part
Finding something in yesterday’s videoshould take as long as asking for it.
No more scrubbing back through six hours with your finger on the mouse. You type what you are after, in plain words, and the matching moments come up. Same cameras as always.
Tell us your problem and we will say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
We reply the same working day.