Flood Costs Rising

The damage caused by flooding in Japan has increased in 2015-2019 from 390 billion JPY to 2.18 trillion JPY. As the effects of climate change grow, including more severe flooding, early flood detection becomes more critical in preventing loss of life and destruction of property and infrastructure.

A New Solution

FCNT Limited has partnered with DSR Corporation to jointly develop Water Level Detection Solution that efficiently monitors onsite status of rivers, ponds and canals, by detecting water levels 365-days a year under various conditions using DSR’s Computer Vision-based AI technology running on FCNT’s edge camera.

Features

On-site night-vision technology allows for clear monitoring both day and night and cloud technology records and visualizes changes in water levels in real-time. This is an “ultra-low energy consumption system” which has been designed to operate entirely on solar power.

Cut Costs

Large rivers require hundreds of cameras and substantial manpower dedicated to monitoring these cameras manually, which has proven to be costly and unreliable. Other monitoring methods like water level meters can only be installed at certain sites and are costlier still. These systems’ monitoring cameras, water level meters, and communication devices are installed separately and do not interact with each other. 

Power of Computer Vision

To address these issues, FCNT and DSR’s Water Level Detection Solution integrates the functions of monitoring cameras, water level meters, and communication features into one-solution by using an image processing AI algorithm developed by DSR onto FCNT’s Edge AI camera. The monitoring camera and 5G LTE based communication functions reduce device monitoring and installation costs and allow for less restricted installation locations and device upkeep. Data collected from monitoring cameras is loaded into the cloud where water levels are measured, recorded, and tracked in real-time.

FCNT and DSR’s Water Level Detection Solution applies virtual rulers at an optimal spot on the image to detect water surface levels. The measured data and images are then sent to the cloud where they are further processed and visualized.

Cloud-Based Analysis

Once on the cloud, the data is analyzed and changes in water levels are confirmed by graphs.

24/7 Enhanced Monitoring

To address various monitoring conditions, the Water Level Detection Solution uses proprietary image quality optimization function to adjust for low-light, enhancing the night view by tuning 8 levels of parameters based on environment’s illuminance.

A Sustainable Device

The Water Level Detection Solution is an ultra-low energy consumption system running on solar power with ability to operate for up to 7 days without sun exposure. This allows the solution to be installed anywhere and operate independently of existing infrastructure, including coverage of remote or hard to get to locations. FCNT’s renewable energy system is used as the power supply and is part of FCNT’s continued pledge to build sustainable society through the use of environment-friendly technology.

What's Next

FCNT’s and DSR’s Water Level Detection Solution will be available in 2022 to contribute to flooding and disaster prevention and mitigation.

Learn more about the FCNT Edge AI solution at https://www.fcnt.com/business/solution/casestudy.html#sct-1 and check out DSR’s computer vision applications on www.noema.tech, the computer vision arm of DSR.