CAM-416
The intake reservoir woke up green
Mid-morning at the reservoir the drinking water comes from. Away to the right the water is still blue. In front of the intake tower it is not: a thick green mat covers the whole shoreline and curls in swirls right up to the intake screens. Two technicians in hard hats and hi-vis look at it from the walkway. The camera sees the colour and how far it has spread. Whether there is a toxin in it cannot be seen: that is for the laboratory.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS understands
What it recognises in this scene
- green mat on the water
- intake tower
- water intake screens
- two technicians on the walkway
- clear water further out
What this camera measures
An alert says something is happening. The reading says how much.
- 3days in a row with green water
- 5 htime with the mat touching the screens
- 2people on the walkway
- 2alerts opened today at this intake
- 11:20time 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
the colour of the water in front of the intake changes against previous days, or a floating mat appears on the surface
Then
- opens an alert with the camera, the time and the image compared with previous days
- notifies the intake supervisor so that sampling and laboratory analysis are ordered
- keeps the day's series of images to show where the mat has advanced
The instruction that set it up«Tell me if the water in front of the intake changes colour or if a mat appears on the surface.»
What changes
What changes for whoever answers for the plant
Whoever runs a drinking water intake needs to find out the same day the water changes colour, not when the lab result comes back. IRIS compares today's image with yesterday's and reports that the mat has appeared and that it has reached the screens. With that, someone is sent to take samples and a decision can be made about changing the draw-off depth. The alert does not say the water is toxic. It says go and look, and go and analyse.
What people usually ask
Does IRIS detect cyanotoxins in the water?
No, and this is the single most important limit in the whole sector: the colour is visible, the toxin is not. A camera sees that the water has changed colour and that there is a mat on the surface. Whether that mat carries cyanotoxins, and how much, is measured in a laboratory from a sample. IRIS says go and look and go and analyse; it never says the water is toxic, and never says it is safe.
So what is the alert good for?
To win a day. A bloom shows up on camera the moment it appears, while the walking round or the lab result arrive later. The alert puts someone on sampling that same morning, and it records what time the water changed and how far the mat spread. That timeline is worth having afterwards, for the internal report and for the basin authority.
What if the water turns green for another reason?
It happens, which is why the alert is called a colour change and not a bloom. A discharge, pollen, mud after a storm or the reflection of the hillside at dusk also change the picture. IRIS shows the comparison with previous days and a person looks before anything is moved. The rule about which change deserves an alert, and what time of day the comparison is made, is written by whoever runs the intake.
Other cameras
- CAM-400 · Water is coming up through the cover and the street is a river
- CAM-401 · The clarifier has filled with foam and it is going over the weir
- CAM-402 · The screen is packed with wipes and the water is not getting through
- CAM-403 · A tree has come down the channel and is blocking the intake
- CAM-404 · A jet is spraying from the flange and the puddle keeps growing
- CAM-405 · The container plugged in is not the one that belongs there
Simulation · how IRIS works
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.
- The alert fires
- 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
Nothing changes on the wall.On the screen, everything changes.
Same brackets, same cabling, same cameras. The only difference is that those images are now understood as they come in, instead of waiting for someone to open them.
Tell us your problem and we will say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
We reply the same working day.