Conclusions

Abstract

The industry workshop on VID systems as well as a review of fire incident data and multiple occupancies that are using or considering the use of VID systems has clearly revealed the complexity of fire VID applications. Even for similar occupancies or even different camera locations within the same space, there can be large variations in the environmental factors that impact VID performance. In general, background images (e.g., structures and equipment), colors of walls and objects, lighting, and activities within the field of view of a camera can have effects on the operation of a system. This variation does not inherently imply problems for VID systems, but it does create a problem for selecting specific environmental parameters in developing performance criteria that are to be broadly applicable. Consequently, similar to optical flame detectors, the design of a VID system should follow an application-specific, performance-based approach.