OC teen develops AI technology system to detect wildfires early
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- An Orange County high school junior from Newport Beach has taken an idea he came up with in 5th grade and developed technology that could save lives by detecting wildfires early.
"It's almost like you have to treat a fire like cancer. If you can detect it early on, it's easier to put out. It's almost just like a nuisance," said Ryan Honary. "But if you detect it in like Stage 4, it becomes a much bigger problem and much harder to take out."
The now 17 year old created SensoRy AI.
It is a system of sensors coupled with artificial intelligence that work together to spot heat and fire before it spreads.
"Say if one of my detectors were to detect a fire, it would basically use mesh networking, which basically means my whole network can communicate with each other; it would take that information and jump it from detector to detector until I reached one of my detectors that have cellular capabilities," Honary said.
The detector with cell service would notify authorities of the location of the threat.
The sensors are also equipped with cameras to give fire crews a visual of the possible blaze.
Last week, Honary teamed up with the city of Irvine and Orange County Fire Authority to deploy the first sensor in a high risk area with homes, high voltage equipment, power lines and dead brush.
"I'm hoping that in the process I can save many people's lives, I can save homes, I can save animal lives and I can just save the environment in general," he said.
Honary has big goals for his company. He encourages other kids to turn their ideas into realities.
"I've been working on it for six years before I even got to deploy once. We've done so many tests," Honary said. "There's been obviously a lot of roadblocks, but I still had to work at it for six years to see any form of result."
Four more of the detectors are expected to go up by the end of March and Honary hopes to have a total of 25 set up along the 133 corridor by the end of September.
