As bushfires rage across Australia, Israeli company Edgybees is helping emergency responders get where they’re needed faster and more accurately.
“Manned aircraft are unable to fly through smoke and flames, so many unmanned aircraft, especially drones, are used to generate live video streams from the active fire areas,” explains Edgybees CEO Adam Kaplan.
However, the video images alone aren’t helpful in immediate decision-making processes.
“We’re able to take video feeds coming from the drones and from helicopters and overlay real-time data accurately over that video using augmented reality,” Kaplan said at the OurCrowd Global Investor Summit last week in Jerusalem.
“Then we send that information back to the command centers and allow the people on the ground to plan escape routes for evacuees and where to put first responders. We use data to allow people to understand what they are looking at in real time and make instant decisions.”
Edgybees has been deployed in other disaster areas as well, such as Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys in 2017 and the recent California wildfires.
The technology also is used in the United States in settings such as the oil and gas industries, farming and national defense.
Edgybees, based in Maryland and in Herzliya, started as a gaming company for drone hobbyists.