On April 24, forest rangers powered up two high-tech cameras mounted on Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T cellphone towers in the hills above British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley for the first time.
The cameras, which look like fivepin bowling balls, faced their first test on the BC Wildfire Service’s front lines. The rangers needed to know if the 360-degree, high-definition lens could deliver on claims to spot fires up 24 kilometres away, and if an artificial intelligence system could actually distinguish ribbons of smoke from mountain mist and clouds.
Within hours, the pilot project proved its merit: One of the cameras spotted a blaze and automatically notified crews, who were on
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