A Silicone Valley startup has merged generative artificial intelligence and computer vision to create an effective tool firefighters can use to fight wildfires.
Chooch, the developer of a leading AI computer vision platform that can immediately detect visuals, objects and actions in video images, responded to the devastating 2020 wildfires by offering its services to California fire officials.
“With the 2020 wildfires, it became very personal, so we asked fire officials how we could help,” Chooch CEO Emrah Gultekin said in a June 14 NVIDIA article.
Gultekin and his team learned that the existing wildfire-detection system was sending as many as 2,000 false fire notifications per week to California fire services and utilities due to fog, rain and smudges on camera lenses, effectively swamping responders, according to the article.
Chooch developed a pilot project that linked its computer vision software to the fire-detection camera network, the article reports. Every 15 minutes, the software analyzed images for signs of fire or smoke.
"Then, the team led by Hakan Gultekin — Emrah’s brother, a software wiz and Chooch’s CTO — had an idea," the report states. "They built a generative AI tool that automatically created descriptions of each image, helping reviewers discern when smoke is present. False positives dropped from 2,000 a week to eight."
Currently, firefighters in Kern County, California use Chooch’s generative AI tool dashboard, populated in real time with alerts, on their smartphones and PCs so they can quickly be alerted to and begin to combat wildfires.
NVIDIA reports in the article that California had 9,900 wildfires in 2020, burning more than four million acres and causing $19 billion in losses. The article reports Chooch estimates that stopping even one fire from spreading uncontrollably would "pay for the wildfire detection system for 50 years."
Emrah Gultekin predicts in the NVIDIA report that "the fusion of large language models and computer vision will bring about even more powerful and accurate products that are easier to deploy."
As an example, the article states utilities could "connect the software to drones and fixed cameras to detect corrosion on capacitors or vegetation encroaching on power lines."
Chooch is entering an $11 million Xprize challenge for innovative ways to detect and fight wildfires, which could validate its technology further, according to NVIDIA. The company uses its technology to address various challenges to the manufacturing, retail and security industries, according to the article.
“For example, one manufacturer uses Chooch’s models to detect defects before products ship,” the article states. “Eliminating just 20% of the faults will pay for the system several times over.”
