Automatic Life Jacket Detection For Drones 85
garymortimer writes "Sentient, an Australian company that makes drone software, has given UAVs the ability to search for small, high visibility objects such as life jackets. From the article: 'Kestrel Maritime is a software solution that processes electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) full motion video (FMV) from manned and unmanned vehicles (UAVs). The Life Jacket Detection enhances Kestrel Maritime EO capability to automatically detect small, high visibility objects whilst searching wide maritime areas.'"
Re:Not just search and rescue (Score:4, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk [wikipedia.org]
"It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometers) of terrain a day."
Performance
Maximum speed: 497.1 mph (800.0 km/h; 432.0 kn)
Cruise speed: 404 mph (351 kn; 650 km/h)
Range: 15,525 mi (13,491 nmi; 24,985 km)
Endurance: 36 hours
Service ceiling: 65,000 ft (19,812 m)
Faster than a helicopter, and with these new algorithms, better at finding people. I say we send the drones.
Re:Seems good (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/PigeonSARProject.asp [uscg.mil]