Using Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks to Enhance Early Forest Fire Detection

In the present paper, the authors present the design, the development and field experiment of a forest fire detection system based on Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSN) technology using a real test-bed. This system is an extension of their previous work presented in (Bouabdellah, Noureddine, & Larbi, 2013). The latter is based on mono modal approach (only scalar sensors were considered for data sensing), by adopting a new multimodal and cooperative approach in which it added the acquisition of much richer information using the image sensor in order to minimize false alarms that represents the main weakness for the old system. The validation of the proposal was performed by comparing two detection techniques (Canadian and Korean) in terms of time constraint and energy consumption. The results of the practical assessment confirmed the importance of the multimodal approach and also revealed the supremacy of the Canadian method and its compliance to the climate of Algeria's region.