1.What Big Tree Animal Sanctuary and Adoption Center (hereafter Big Tree) is using?
Big Tree is using our AI-Cloud SaaS to mitigate wildfire risks and damages by automatically early detecting wildfires.
AI-Cloud SaaS is our new product. There are 3 major components:
a) AXIS visual cameras capturing video images of surrounding areas
b) cloud-based AI wildfire detection system
c) ReportFires mobile app that will receive alerts of wildfires detected
When Big Tree volunteer staff receive wildfire alert, they can launch the ReportFires app, review the wildfire information and image. If they find it is a bad fire, then they can phone the police or rural fires service. They can report and share the wildfire location via the ReportFires app too.
What is a good fire? Barbecue fire, campfire, and bonfires, etc.
2.How does AI-Cloud SaaS work?
a) An AI-Cloud SaaS customer is required to set up their existing or new AXIS visual cameras to send video images to AI-Cloud server regularly using AXIS’s action rule system features. This setup will not interrupt the customer’s existing video workflow.
b) AI-Cloud server will receive video images from the AXIS cameras and process the images using Machine Learning object detection.
c) If AI-Cloud server detects wildfires in a photo, AI-Cloud server will send wildfire alerts to users via the ReportFires mobile app. Users can then take timely action accordingly.
Video: AI-Cloud SaaS introduction
3.What is the relationship between Big Tree and RoboticsCats? Why RoboticsCats develops AI-Cloud for Big Tree?
We didn’t know each other before 26-Oct-2020.
We read from the newspapers about the wildfire outbreak near Big Tree on 25-Oct-2020. We wanted to help them. With the linkage of a common friend, we talked directly on 28-Oct-2020. After a few discussions, Big Tree was interested to use our AI-Cloud SaaS. They then applied the Subsidy Scheme of Encouraging Early Deployment of 5G to get funding to implement the solution.
We’re now more than a customer-provider relationship! We’re a team to make a better world.
We started AI-Cloud SaaS development to meet the needs of US customers. We received many incoming inquiries about wildfire detection products from home-owners, communities, small farms, and SMB in the US. They are new customer segments to us. They need an automatic, quick-to-deploy, and simple-to-use wildfire detection tool. Therefore, we develop AI-Cloud SaaS to meet their needs.
We did not develop AI-Cloud SaaS for Big Tree. However, AI-Cloud SaaS can help Big Tree. Out of our expectations, the first AI-Cloud SaaS paying customer is from Hong Kong! A good surprise!
4.What is RoboticsCats’ product strategy?
Wildfire is not a government’s problem. It is everybody’s problem. We believe everyone – Government/Enterprise, community/SMB, and individual consumer – can help to solve the problem with the right tools. Therefore we develop three different products to serve different market segments.
Our InsightFD early wildfire detection robots help government agencies, such as the rural fire service and national park department, to detect wildfire tens of kilometers away. Each InsightFD robot is equipped with a thermal camera and a visual camera. It detects wildfire by its thermal radiation and visual signature. It uses AI wildfire detection on visual images. It requires a well-planned deployment and accurate calibration. It is purpose-built to protect large forests of 70,000 hectares or more.
Our ReportFires app helps individual users to report wildfires quickly and easily by simple map clicks, to get notified of early wildfires reported by other users, and to automatically detect nearby wildfires. It uses AI wildfire detection. It is a FREE app that anyone can use to mitigate wildfire risk and damage.
AI-Cloud SaaS completes our offering by providing a wildfire detection solution to the home-owner association and SMBs to detect wildfire near their properties. It works with standard visual cameras. It uses AI wildfire detection. It is a quick-to-deploy product. SaaS makes it a flexible OPEX solution. Easy-to-use web and app interfaces help customers to use the tool productively!
Our triple-play can help different stakeholders to effectively detect early wildfire ignitions!
There is no silver bullet to manage wildfire. We need urban planning, building codes, infrastructure maintenance, forest management, wildfire prevention / prediction / detection / response / recovery. It is lifecycle management that needs government, private sectors, and public engagement. We win as a team.
5.What’s next? How will you launch AI-Cloud SaaS?
According to our plan, we will launch AI-Cloud SaaS in the US first. We are partnering with our advisor Wonder Labs to implement a few pilots in California in Q2. Then we plan to roll out the service in Wisconsin and Texas.
After the US launch, we plan to offer AI-Cloud SaaS in selected markets in Asia and EMEA in the second half of 2021.
6.What is the product roadmap?
We will add configurable detection sensitive levels to AI-Cloud SaaS. We will launch the ReportFires Android app very soon!
It is a new product serving a large spectrum of customers. We actively listen to customer inputs and feedback to improve the product. We’re engaging some universities about joint R&D projects too. AI-Cloud SaaS development is a cross-organization teamwork!
7.How to contact Big Tree if one wants to make donations to Big Tree?
Website: click here
Facebook: click here
