00:00Well, a police rescue helicopter would have three assets available to them. One would
00:07be an optical camera, the other would be infrared, and then my favourite would be the thermal
00:15camera. And optical and infrared wouldn't work so well in the weather conditions that
00:21we've got at the moment, but the thermal camera would do a good job at trying to locate the
00:27fugitive. I would say they're very strongly using aerial assets because they're assets
00:34that are somewhat disposable. If you put a person into that thick bush, they could be
00:38right on top of the fugitive and get a big surprise before they even know he's there.
00:44Where a drone can be overhead 200 feet to 400 feet, it makes no noise on the ground, so the
00:51fugitive doesn't know something is overhead searching for him. Infrared relies on a reflection,
00:58so it's a bit like a camera taking a picture. So some drones will carry infrared so they can
01:04put out, cast out a beam, and that will enable you to see in low light or zero light conditions.
01:12But probably the best asset for this search and rescue because of the foliage and a brush
01:17they've got to see through would be thermal. And that's a camera that can actually filter
01:22out the vegetation and show you what's on the ground. So a person is obviously going
01:27to be a lot hotter than the environment around him. And with technology, we can filter out
01:34things like kangaroos, wombats, sheep and cows, and identify the shape of a person either
01:41walking, running or sort of cuddled, like held up nice and tight hiding. The only way to really hide
01:48and outwit a thermal camera is to get into something like a cave or a big overhang, or you may find two
01:56big trees falling over together side by side, and you can get underneath that and hide yourself. But
02:03it is pretty difficult with the technology we've got now.
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