ESA’s ARTES Satellite to aid for smart logging Ireland

Treemetrics in Ireland, supported by ESA’s ARTES Programme, has developed an all-encompassing device with hybrid satellite/terrestrial communications and GPS to better manage our utilisation of forest resources. 

Credit: Treemetrics

Satcoms are helping to save our trees through more efficient use of our forests.

Satellites are mapping forests, sending instructions to loggers, monitoring tree-harvesting machinery and coordinating log transport almost in real time.

The Treemetrics company in Ireland, supported by ESA, has developed an all-encompassing device that uses hybrid satellite and terrestrial communications, and GPS.

The display gives detailed mapping information, showing a harvesting machine's driver which trees should be felled and how the wood should be cut.

At the same time, information on the logger's progress and location is sent via satellite to a central web-based system.

The in-vehicle display also helps other drivers find the logs stacked at specified locations so they can be moved to the roadside to await transport to sawmills.

Independent owner-operators of harvesting machinery benefit from detailed navigation as well as security features that help safeguard their equipment.

For forest owners, the system offers accurate information on logging yields.

The sawmills can tune the incoming supply by informing operators the type of timber currently in demand, whether pulp or a higher grade.


Treemetrics is also working under ESA’s ARTES Programme to develop a web-based application that uses satellite navigation and Earth observation data to provide vital insights into the health of forested areas, assisting the owners of forests to identify those areas most suitable for logging.

Satellites provide much higher-resolution images than traditional hardcopy maps, and they can be updated more frequently, giving landowners highly accurate and up-to-date information.

The Irish Farmers Association will jointly market the approach to their national membership under the name 'iForest'.

Green Belt, Ireland's largest private forestry company, has announced plans to deploy it nationally to their clients.

Coillte are in talks to begin a pre-commercial rollout of the system in a test area by the end of the year.

It is also being introduced in the UK to relay harvester information to some of the largest forestry companies.

Treemetrics plans to offer it to the haulage trucks that collect the timber left on the roadside ready for the sawmills.

This would mean the system could handle the entire timber chain, making it possible to closely track this valuable natural resource.

Stephen Hawking: Threat to Humanity - Artificial Intelligence and Smart Weapon Systems

Stephen Hawking, in an article inspired by the new Johnny Depp flick Transcendence, said it would be the "worst mistake in history" to dismiss the threat of artificial intelligence.

In a paper he co-wrote with University at California, Berkeley computer-science professor Stuart Russell, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professors Max Tegmark and Frank Wilczek, Hawking cited several achievements in the field of artificial intelligence, including self-driving cars, Siri and the computer that won the US game show Jeopardy!

"Such achievements will probably pale against what the coming decades will bring," the article in Britain's Independent said.

"Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history," the article continued. "Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks."

The professors wrote that in the future there may be nothing to prevent machines with superhuman intelligence from self-improving, triggering a so-called "singularity."

"One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand."

"Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all," the article said.

"Although we are facing potentially the best or worst thing to happen to humanity in history, little serious research is devoted to these issues outside non-profit institutes such as the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the Future of Humanity Institute, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and the Future of Life Institute."

"All of us should ask ourselves what we can do now to improve the chances of reaping the benefits and avoiding the risks."

Smart paint uses Fly Ash to revolutionize structural safety - Scottish Research

Dr. Mohamed Saafi, University of Strathclyde. Credit: University of Strathclyde

An innovative low-cost smart paint that can detect microscopic faults in wind turbines, mines and bridges before structural damage occurs is being developed by researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

The environmentally-friendly paint uses nanotechnology to detect movement in large structures, and could shape the future of safety monitoring.

Traditional methods of assessing large structures are complex, time consuming and use expensive instrumentation, with costs spiraling into millions of pounds each year.

However, the smart paint costs just a fraction of the cost and can be simply sprayed onto any surface, with electrodes attached to detect structural damage long before failure occurs.

Dr Mohamed Saafi, of the Strathclyde University's Department of Civil Engineering, said: "The development of this smart paint technology could have far-reaching implications for the way we monitor the safety of large structures all over the world.

"There are no limitations as to where it could be used and the low-cost nature gives it a significant advantage over the current options available in the industry. The process of producing and applying the paint also gives it an advantage as no expertise is required and monitoring itself is straightforward."

The paint is formed using a recycled waste product known as fly ash and highly aligned carbon nanotubes. When mixed it has a cement-like property which makes it particularly useful in harsh environments.

Dr Saafi explained: "The process of monitoring involves in effect a wireless sensor network. The paint is interfaced with wireless communication nodes with power harvesting and warning capability to remotely detect any unseen damage such as micro-cracks in a wind turbine concrete foundation.

"Wind turbine foundations are currently being monitored through visual inspections. The developed paint with the wireless monitoring system would significantly reduce the maintenance costs and improve the safety of these large structures.

"Current technology is restricted to looking at specific areas of a structure at any given time, however, smart paint covers the whole structure which is particularly useful to maximise the opportunity of preventing significant damage."

The research has been carried out at Strathclyde with Dr Saafi working alongside David McGahon, who initiated the work as part of his PhD project.

With fly ash being the main material used to make the paint, it costs just one percent of the alternative widely used inspection methods.

A prototype has been developed and tests have shown the paint to be highly effective. It is hoped further tests will be carried out in Glasgow in the near future.

Dr Saafi added: "We are able to carry out the end-to-end process at the University and we are hoping that we can now demonstrate its effectiveness on a large structure.

"The properties of the fly ash give the paint a durability that will allow it to be used in any environment which will be a massive advantage in areas where the weather can make safety monitoring particularly difficult.

"The smart paint represents a significant development and is one that has possibly been overlooked as a viable solution because research tends to focus on high-tech options that look to eliminate human control. Our research shows that by maintaining the human element the costs can be vastly reduced without an impact on effectiveness."

Smart Security CCTV Detects Criminal Behaviour

WHAT'S the difference between a suicide bomber and a cleaner? It sounds like the opening line of a sick joke, but for computer scientists working on intelligent video-surveillance software, being able to make that distinction is a key goal.

Current CCTV systems can collect masses of data, but little of it is used, says Shaogang Gong, a computer-vision computation researcher at Queen Mary, University of London. "What we really need are better ways to mine that data," he says.

Gong is leading an international team of researchers to develop a next-generation CCTV system, called Samurai, which is capable of identifying and tracking individuals that act suspiciously in crowded public spaces. It uses algorithms to profile people's behaviour, learning about how people usually behave in the environments where it is deployed. It can also take changes in lighting conditions into account, enabling it to track people as they move from one camera's viewing field to another.

To improve the tracking of an individual at an airport, the system can also learn the routes people are likely to take - straight from the entrance to check-in, say. It can even follow a target as they move in a crowd, using the characteristic shape of the person, their luggage and the people they are walking with, to follow them as they walk between different camera views.

Samurai is designed to issue alerts when it detects behaviour that differs from the norm, and adjusts its reasoning based on feedback. So an operator might reassure the system that the person with a mop appearing to loiter in a busy thoroughfare is no threat. When another person with a mop exhibits similar behaviour, it will remember that this is not a situation that needs flagging up.

While video analysis tools already exist, they tend to operate according to rigid, predefined rules, says Gong, and cannot follow a large number of people across multiple cameras situated in busy public spaces.

The Samurai team last month demonstrated the system to commercial partners including BAA Airports in the UK. The researchers claim the prototype system successfully identified potential threats which may have been missed by human operators, using footage collected at Heathrow airport. The Samurai team has funding to continue refining their software until the end of 2011.

"The use of relevant feedback from human operators will be a very important part of these technologies," says Paul Miller, of Queen's University's Centre for Secure Information Technologies in Belfast, UK, who is leading a project to develop a video-analysis system capable of predicting assaults on buses. "The key is developing learning algorithms that work not only in the lab but that are robust in real-world applications."

Smart Moon home knows just how you like your breakfast

Humans are creatures of habit, as a sensor-stuffed apartment at Washington State University in Pullman knows.

The smart home can learn the ways of its inhabitants simply by observing how they walk around and use different appliances.

The technology could be used in houses to support people with cognitive difficulties or dementia with their daily living needs, or to make things easier for healthy people.

The apartment can, for example, recognise when a person is performing actions associated with making breakfast. If the person absent-mindedly leaves a stove burner on, the system can spot the anomaly and prompt them with audio and video signals to return to the hob.