ATLANTA, GA. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Thousands of people in Texas are still cleaning up after Hurricane Ike's devastation. One of the toughest tasks for relief agencies after a disaster is assessing where and how many people need help. Scientists have developed a new, low-cost imaging system that could make a lifesaving difference.
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Days after Hurricane Katrina, Blake Moore, a pilot with Air Atlanta Helicopters in Atlanta, Ga., saw the devastation firsthand from the air.
"Katrina was amazing," Moore told Ivanhoe. "You could fly for 50 miles and the destruction was just from one mile to 50 miles. It was just as vast as you can imagine."
Scientists and engineers at Georgia Tech Research Institute say a new imaging device could be the key to getting help where it's needed more quickly after a natural disaster.
"If the helicopter would carry this camera along, it could snap pictures continuously, and they could be downloaded when they land," David Price, a research technologist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, told Ivanhoe. "We could piece them all together and determine if there are refugees that hadn't been picked up or noticed yet."
The imaging system, called a mini mod-pod, uses a basic off-the-shelf Canon digital camera. Pictures are combined with global positioning software to pinpoint the location and inertial measurements to identify people. This creates hundreds of high-resolution aerial photos comparable to what you would see from a satellite.
"You can get almost as good, and sometimes better, resolution, and you can get it immediately rather than have to wait your turn in a queue to get access to a satellite," Price said.
In minutes, the photos can be stitched together to form a mosaic covering hundreds of miles, showing authorities exactly where and how many people on the ground need help.
"What a great resource and ability to be able to get those people out," Moore said.
Researchers hope to get the mini mod-pod into the air as soon as possible so it's ready to help when the next disaster strikes.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
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