The Tech of a Forest Fire
When I started to work for the Los Angeles County Fire department, this was the last place where I expected to find technology. I was amazed at what kinds of technology that are available and used to fight forest fires. Water is not the only firefighting tool in the battle against a fire. Enter technology.I was contacted by the Los Angeles County Forestry Department. They wanted to create a mobile communications vehicle that they can take up to forest fires. We started brainstorming on some ideas on what we wanted this vehicle to do. They wanted a computer system that can connect to the company's network. The Forestry Department wanted 2 LCD monitors with 3 printers- one of which is going to be a plotter. The vehicle was to contain a digital wireless communications system as well as an analog 2-way radio. Most importantly, it is to contain an infrared system to view hotspots in a wildfire. We named the vehicle "The Infrared Van" or "IR Van" for short. We bought an old van that looked like an ice cream truck. It was painted, fire department sticke
We added a computer system in the van which contains Windows 2000. We mounted 2 17" monitors on the van's walls. The computer was connected to three printers via a Belkin auto-switch. The printers are an Epson 1520 color printer, a Cannon color printer-scanner-fax machine-copy machine, and an HP 1070 Plotter to make maps. To get rid of cables, we chose to use a wireless keyboard and mouse. The control panel which is located in the van is another computer similar to a laptop. The camera that is mounted on the helicopter is analog. It transmits the data to a dish antenna on top of the van. The dish connects to a VCR inside the van. The VCR, which accepts the analog data, transmits the data into a video capture card inside the computer which converts analog to digital data. The computer processes the digital info and displays them on the LCD monitors. One LCD monitor displays an aerial view of the wildfire and the other LCD monitor displays the fire in infrared view. Infrared radiation is electromagnetic radiation whose wavelengths are greater than tho
Some common words found in the essay are:
IR Van, Forestry Department, Wescam Wescam, County Fire, Wescam SST, Van Wescam's, Black Hawk, temperature object, infrared radiation, control panel, ir van, hot spots, Los Angeles, Angeles County, , control panel ir, object distance, camera mount, wescam's camera, thermal imaging, transmits data, los angeles county, panel ir van, lcd monitor displays, temperature object distance,
Approximate Word count = 721
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
