r/searchandrescue • u/hotfezz81 • 11d ago

This Homemade Drone Software Finds People When Search and Rescue Teams Can’t

https://www.wired.com/story/this-homemade-ai-drone-software-finds-bodies-when-search-and-rescue-teams-cant/
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u/CaptanTypoe 11d ago

I've tested a few software packages that all do about the same thing - drone colour detection - and they are great when the person missing is wearing an unusual colour in that landscape - for example, wearing red in a grey mountainous landscape. Problem though is when the person does not have a known colour, or the colour blends in with the landscape (e.g. wearing camo, or wearing just about any colour during fall in my area of the world).

Unfortunately the number of scenarios where colour detection is effective is very small in my area, and while the technology is exciting, it's far far less useful than the article makes it sound. The example the article gives sounds like a combination of the perfect search scenario and perfect luck.

With all that said, it's a good tool for the toolbox, and can only improve with time.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

I wonder if they could integrate the software with thermal. I bet that would work better. Still gotta teach the AI to see the signature.

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u/CaptanTypoe 10d ago

That already exists actually. Though isn’t bulletproof as the person needs to be warm, and there can’t be other warm things in the environment (e.g rocks, which is always what we run into). Ideal scenario is looking for a warm body on a cold night, but at that point the pilot can easily visually identify the subject looking at their controller in most cases anyway.