| This research explores the issues involved in developing a real-time system for the detection and georeferencing of forest fire hot spots. The system integrates a wide area differential GPS receiver, an inertial measurement unit and thermal video camera. The research discusses the specific issues encountered with synchronizing the georeferencing information with the thermal video images. Thermal imaging concepts are presented, with specific discussion of the issues related to the identification, extraction, and tracking of forest fire hot spots. System testing indicates that the real-time identification, extraction and tracking of hot spots, combined with real-time positioning from WADGPS allowed for the automatic georeferencing of targets to within 2 m at survey altitudes near 350 m. With the feasibility of this system confirmed from these results, specific issues encountered with the development of real-time software on a Windows 2000 platform highlight the non-deterministic or soft real-time characteristics of Windows 2000. Although this research has provided promising results, further testing and acquisition of thermal imaging during realistic forest fire conditions is required to confirm consistent and repeatable results. |
