CAM-322
The flare is not burning the way it always does
Late afternoon over the refinery. The flare has a huge flame, far taller than the mouth of the stack, trailing a plume of black smoke that crosses the sky above the tanks. Down below the plant carries on as usual: a pickup parked in the roadway, a worker crossing the yard. Nobody is looking up. IRIS compares this flame with the flame of this same stack on a normal day, and what it sees does not match.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS understands
What it recognises in this scene
- flare flame, outside its usual size
- plume of black smoke
- flare stack
- tank farm in the background
- pickup parked in the roadway
- worker crossing the yard
What this camera measures
An alert says something is happening. The reading says how much.
- 3Flame height, in stack mouths
- 1Usual height at this hour
- 18 minTime with black smoke
- 2Episodes counted today
- 18:05Time of the change
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 flare flame goes out, changes size abruptly or the plume turns black
Then
- alert the control room with the hour it changed
- save the video from the change and keep it while it lasts
- leave the episode dated and with footage for the environmental report
The instruction that set it up«Tell me when the flare flame goes out, jumps in size or starts throwing black smoke, and tell me since when.»
What changes
What changes for whoever answers for the plant
The flare is what people see from the road, and what the neighbour photographs. A long black plume ends up as a complaint, an inspection or a headline. It pays the plant manager to know before anybody else: with the camera he has the hour it changed, how long it has been like that and the video for the report. And if the flame goes out, he hears about it there and then, which is the case that really worries people.
What people usually ask
Can a camera tell whether a flare is misbehaving?
Yes, and it is exactly what a camera is best at. Comparing does not require understanding the chemistry: the camera watches that flare from the same spot every day and knows what its normal flame looks like at each hour. If today it is three times taller, if it comes out black, or if there is no flame at all, that is visible in the image. Why it is happening is for the process to say.
Which is worse, black smoke or no flame at all?
No flame at all. A flare that has gone out but is still being fed releases into the air what it should be burning, and from a distance nobody notices, because there is nothing to see. That is why the rule is written both ways: it alerts when the flame grows and it alerts when the flame disappears. The second one is what nobody looks at.
Does this count as an environmental measurement?
Not as a measurement. IRIS does not measure emissions and does not replace an analyser: what it delivers is a dated image of how the flare looked at each hour, and the exact minute it changed. That is visual evidence for the report and for answering a complaint, not an emissions figure. The figure comes from the measuring equipment.
Other cameras
- CAM-320 · A jet from the pump and a pool that keeps growing
- CAM-321 · Flame and smoke in the pump row
- CAM-323 · The tank is overflowing from the top
- CAM-324 · The tank hatch is open and nobody is up there
- CAM-325 · The hose is coupled to the wrong header
- CAM-326 · They are opening the valve on the line next door
The real interface, step by step
Watch what happens. Then watch what IRIS does with it.
Not a recorded video and not a drawing: it is a summary of the real tool, with a different case each time round. The whole tool does not fit in a box.
- It lands in the tray
- You open it
- You confirm or dismiss
Next step
And who watches the cameras?
0 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.
Who watches the cameras of a whole city?
23 cases: 18 raise an alert when something happens and 5 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.