JP2001201574A - Support system for early discovery of victim - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To accelerate the early discovery of a victim in various cases where the victim itself has no special device. SOLUTION: A laser beam device and a thermographic device are mounted on a flying body to collect the irregular information in a searching area on the basis of the laser beam device and also collect the temperature information in the searching area on the basis of the thermographic device. The discrimination data natural to human body is extracted on the basis of either one of these collection data, and the position of the victim is specified on the basis of the extracted data. A sonar device suspendible by a rope is desirably mounted on the flying body.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for assisting early detection of a victim in a mountain or sea accident, and more particularly to a technique for detecting a position when the victim does not have a special dedicated device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There have been several proposals for finding a victim at an early stage in the event of a mountain or sea disaster. A representative technique is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-08-304547. This facilitates the detection of victims in the event of a maritime accident caused by an aircraft accident.A reflective sheet is placed on a life jacket and laser beams are emitted from a flying object such as a helicopter to easily detect reflected waves. It is a proposal to make.

On the other hand, in the case of a fishing boat accident, a method using a special rescue signal generator is known (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
No. 039392). This proposes a rescue signal that generates a laser beam in place of a smoke tube at night or in dense fog.

In the case of marine or mountain accidents, the victims often lose their consciousness. However, as a rescue support technique at that time, if the victims are conscious, they turn on the switch and lose their consciousness. In such a case, a technology has been proposed in which an abnormality detection sensor is automatically turned on, raises the balloon in any case, and informs a third party of the distress position (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-1997).
007072).

[0005]

By the way, all of these conventional techniques are based on the premise that the victim has some special device or equipment. Of course, for example, the wearing of a life vest in an aircraft accident is realistic, and it is easy to arrange a reflection sheet on the life vest. Therefore, the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. There is no technical problem, to say the least. However, there is no guarantee that a life vest will be effective in the event of an emergency landing on a mountainous area.

A laser beam generator in the event of a fishing boat accident (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-034392) needs to have a device even when thrown into the ocean, and furthermore, there is no damage to the device due to impact. It is assumed that there is no failure of the waterproof function and the battery system. It is not realistic to always carry an emergency device in anticipation of an accident.On the other hand, a rollover accident of a small vessel may occur suddenly, so misplaced rescue devices or damage to rescue devices and victims' consciousness may cause damage. If received, rescue operations from outside may be difficult.

[0007] The rescue signal by a balloon described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-007072 has a problem in that a special device must always be worn. However, if a special device is worn and the victim is conscious, it is considered to be an effective means. However, when the victim loses consciousness, the abnormality detection sensor operates and turns on automatically, and another problem remains when the balloon is automatically raised. Although it depends on the time from the occurrence of a distress to the rescue, it is a question of how long the gas supplied from the small-sized cylinder can keep the balloon raised. Any condition is acceptable as long as the balloon is not damaged and there is no gas leakage. However, if a balloon gets stuck on a tree twig or a slight gas leak as in the case of a mountain disaster, the balloon loses air buoyancy within several hours and loses its function as a position mark.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a system for assisting early detection of a victim in a mountain accident including an avalanche accident, or in various cases of a maritime accident on the assumption that the victim does not have a special device. Is to do.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a system for supporting the early detection of a victim according to the present invention has a flying object equipped with a laser beam device and a thermographic device, and performs a search based on the laser beam device. While collecting the unevenness information of the area, the temperature information of the search area is collected based on the thermography device, the identification data specific to the human body is extracted based on at least one of the collected data, and the victim is identified based on the extracted data. Identify the location of

It is desirable that the thermographic apparatus amplifies the detected temperature within a predetermined threshold from the reference value, using the general average temperature of the search area of the flying object as a reference value. Further, it is desirable to mount a sonar device that can be suspended by a cable on the flying object.

[0011]

The system for supporting early detection of a victim according to the present invention aims at early detection of a victim under the condition that the victim does not carry special equipment or equipment. It goes without saying that if the victim carries special equipment, it is desirable to cooperate with the equipment.

The system according to the present invention comprises a laser beam device for detecting the irregular shape of a human body and a thermography device for detecting a body temperature generated by the human body, and includes a flying object (for example, a helicopter,. And perform a scan search from above the search area to the mountains / sea surface.

[0013] The detection of a victim by a laser beam device or a thermographic device depends on the resolution of these devices. In order to obtain a precise resolution result, the support of a dedicated device such as a large computer is required. From the practical point of view, the support devices for improving the resolution are assumed to be at fixed points on the ground, and wirelessly transmit the data obtained from the flying object to the support device in real time, and obtain the resolution results obtained at the fixed points on the ground. The search is continuously performed by feeding back to the flying object. Of course, if the high resolution detection device can be mounted on the flying object at the same time, that is all right.

In the case of a maritime distress, the only part of a surviving human body protruding from the sea surface is usually the head. Although this is considered to be unfamiliar with laser beam unevenness detection and thermography temperature detection, in the case of the sea surface, the average water level of the search area is almost constant. Even if there is a wave swell, the irradiation area where the laser beam or ultrasonic thermography can scan is limited, so there is almost no adverse effect of height detection due to the wave swell, and the sea level is removed and objects protruding from the water surface (distress ) Can be limitedly extracted.

[0015] In terms of temperature detection, the sea surface temperature is almost uniform at any time and often falls within a range that can be reliably distinguished from the human body temperature. For this reason, when detecting the temperature by the thermographic device, it is possible to detect the position of the victim by detecting a point different from the water temperature value. Of course, when the water temperature is close to 35 ° C., it is necessary to obtain a precise resolution result by a high-resolution device. However, this can obtain the highest resolution result by data communication with the ground station. Yes, it is possible to narrow down at least a desired search point to a plurality of places.

The above points regarding the marine accidents are the same in the case of mountain accidents, and the detection of irregularities of a human body by a laser beam and the detection of body temperature by thermography are fundamental. In the case of mountain distress, trees and snow (especially snow from avalanches)
Is an obstacle to discovery. However, in the case of distress in mountainous areas, temperature detection by thermography is an effective means. Disasters in forest areas, unlike oceanic distress, have a large exposed human body area, and it is possible to increase the resolution output even with tree branches and leaves.

The most difficult search for a distress is finding a victim buried by an avalanche. In this case, a survivor living in a shallow part from the surface of snow is detected by the thermographic device. It is difficult to find extreme changes in temperature because the entire search surface is covered with snow, but it is difficult to extract multiple candidate points within a certain area by increasing the resolution. It is possible.

[0018] Even if a plurality of candidate points are listed, there are many cases where it cannot be asserted that they are definitely the positions of the victims. This is because it is a result of scanning a wide area, and only a candidate point is extracted by artificially increasing the resolution. Therefore, preferably, a sonar device is mounted on the flying object, and final confirmation of candidate points is performed (claim 3).
Object detection by a sonar device is particularly effective in marine and snowy mountains, which are the most difficult to find. This is because the surroundings are seawater in the case of an ocean accident, and the surroundings are ice and snow in the case of a snowy mountain accident, and it is considered that the probability of existence of an object that can be detected by the sonar other than the victim is low.

[0019]

FIG. 1 shows an example of a support system for early detection of a victim according to the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a flying object such as a helicopter, 11 is a laser beam device mounted on the flying object 10, 12 is a thermography device mounted on the flying object 10, and 14 is a sonar device. The laser beam device 11 and the thermography device 12
In each case, light (including infrared rays) is irradiated onto the ground within a predetermined angle range, a reflected wave is obtained, and wavelength analysis is performed. Sonar device 1
4 hangs down from the flying object 10 by a cable or the like as necessary, and performs an ultrasonic object search on the sea surface or the snow surface. Fifteen
Is a data relay device provided in the flying object 10.

On the other hand, reference numeral 20 denotes a ground station. Ground station 20
Includes a data relay device 25 and a high-resolution analyzer 28 that precisely analyzes various data obtained via the data relay device 25. The ground station 20 may be a fixed station (house facility) or a mobile station (vehicle or the like) as long as it can move with the high-resolution analyzer 28 mounted thereon.

The data relay device 15 performs data communication with a data relay station 25 on the ground, and sends various data obtained by the laser beam device 11, the thermography device 12, and the sonar device 14 to the high-resolution analysis device 28. The result is fed back and the feedback is received to notify the occupant of the air vehicle 10. Based on the result, the occupant of the flying object 10 narrows the search range.

In the case where the resolution result at the ground station 20 is designated at one place, the flying object 10 immediately goes to that position. As for the method of specifying the position, it is desirable to specify the position as accurately as possible, such as a method for specifying the latitude and longitude based on the GPS data, or a fixed point on the search area map of the flying object 10. When the GPS and the data map can completely match on the coordinate data, various kinds of position data including the current position of the flying object 10 can be communicated from the ground station, such as designation of a light spot on the map.

The flying object 10 searches for a specific point designated as an analysis result of the ground station 20. At this time, if there are a plurality of candidate points, the sonar device 14 is suspended on the sea surface or the snow surface. Then, object detection (distress detection) is executed using ultrasonic waves. Thereby, the position of the victim can be detected with high accuracy. When there is no response to the sonar device 14, the reliability of the resolution result is low and the sonar device 1
If there is a response to 4, there is a high probability of being a victim, so rush to the scene and contact a rescue squad to request early rescue.

[0024]

As described above, according to the support system for early detection of a victim in the present invention, even if the victim does not have a special device, the early detection of the victim in various cases is promoted. I can do it.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Flying object 11 Laser beam device 12 Thermography device 14 Sonar device 15, 25 Data relay device 20 Ground station 25 Data relay device 28 High-resolution analyzer

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A system for detecting the position of a victim at an early stage when a mountain or sea accident occurs, comprising a laser beam device and a thermographic device mounted on a flying object, and a search area based on the laser beam device. While collecting irregularity information, temperature information of the search area is collected based on a thermographic device, and identification data specific to a human body is extracted based on at least one of the collected data,
An early detection support system for a victim, wherein the position of the victim is specified based on the extracted data. 2. The thermographic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a general average temperature of a search area of the flying object is used as a reference value, and the detected temperature is amplified and displayed within a predetermined threshold value from the reference value. Early detection support system for victims. 3. The flying object is mounted with a sonar device that can be hung by a cable, and the sonar device is operated by hanging the sonar device in an area where the probability of existence of a victim is high. 2. A support system for early detection of victims according to 2.