In situations where there is a lot of smoke, firefighters are likely to have a device in hand to assist them in these severe conditions but an American corporation has come up with the Qwake C-Thru Mask, that has a live feed of vision when the users have the breathing mask on without having to carry it around.
The breathable gear will have a tiny see-through glass HUD on one eye over which it displays a live footage that would be recorded by the thermal camera located over top of the mask, which uses an edge detecting and shape predicting Artificial Intelligence algorithm. For the user, the boundaries of different materials would have a green outline that have different thermal conductivities.
The technology in this device offers extremely effective visibility even if the entire area is dark and filled with smoke. A fire department in California tried these masks during a live drill and they reported that they had an actual visual for the people they rescued and they were surprised by the degree of clarity provided by the C-Thru mask.
The device is still in its development phase even though it seems to be rather advanced for it to just be a prototype. It’s presently unclear if fire departments even have the funds to adopt such technology, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye out for.
All Images:© Qwake Technologies
h/t: New Atlas