THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512130380
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
Far off the Outer Banks, hurricane waves as big as buildings are smashing down on a sinking ship. Lifeboats have been washed away and surviving crew members are desperately waving for help from the stern of the foundering freighter.
At a Coast Guard operations center at the Elizabeth City Air Station, rescue teams are closely watching the terrifying scene being transmitted back from a C-130 circling the disaster.
After studying the pictures displayed on a computer, the search and rescue experts decide there's just one way to hoist the crewmen on the sinking ship to safety by helicopter.
The chopper pilots see that only a small clear area on the sinking ship's stern can be used. Wreckage and flailing rigging will prevent the helicopters from working anyplace else.
So the rescue is on.
That futuristic scenario is now part of the present.
Soon every detail of Coast Guard mercy missions, offshore drug busts and oil spills will be jointly monitored by shore-based experts as well as on-scene teams, thanks to a small group of visionaries stationed at the Coast Guard Air Station here.To improve rescue capability, Coast Guard electronics and computer technicians have developed a system that can send pictures of marine disasters back to headquarters for special action while they are happening.
``We're not a research laboratory here,'' said Chief Warrant Officer Brad Smith this week, ``but we've been able to use off-the-shelf equipment to develop new concepts for our search and rescue operations.''
Smith, 38, is avionics officer at the huge air station south of Elizabeth City. Under the heading of ``special projects'' he has recruited a savvy crew of Coast Guard wizards to create the new technology.
``We needed a higher picture resolution than we could get with hand TV cameras and we couldn't accept the increased weight and space that an airborne television transmitter would involve,'' Smith said.
Even in a time of government downsizing, Smith convinced Coast Guard brass that by using light-weight portable computers with standard modems, plus available 35 mm Kodak-Nikon digital cameras, he could send back pictures from Coast Guard search planes and helicopters.
Buying over-the-counter electronic and camera equipment wasn't cheap: Odom's first working test model of the new system cost about $25,000, but the Coast Guard figures that's a small price to pay for a future life saved.
``This gives us a whole new dimension in search and rescue operations,'' Smith said. ``As we enlarge and improve this capability, we'll be able to send on-scene pictures all over the world if we need special information.''
Smith is certain the strikingly clear pictures sent back by the digital camera will sooner or later make the difference between life and death.
``When a long-range C-130 search aircraft sends back a picture of a developing mission, we'll be able to tell in a moment what kind of additional on-scene equipment we'll need,'' Smith said.
To demonstrate, Chief Avionics Technician Conley Beacham, 36, who is one of Smith's computer whiz kids, called up pictures of a burning sailboat made with the digital camera during a recent mission. The dramatic stills are stored on a calling-card sized memory device in a modem-equipped laptop computer.
The digital camera clearly showed the owner-survivor of the burning sloop already in the water near his emergency liferaft. The main search and rescue helicopter quickly directed a small boat to the scene and the yachtsman's life was saved.
``The high-resolution digital camera makes it possible for us to read the numbers and other identifying markings on suspicious ships,'' said Chief Beacham. ``Pictures of such vessels can be quickly sent to shore where they can be checked out by other agencies, too.''
On a test bench in the electronics shop at the air station is a prototype of a mobile command station that will soon be linked to camera-equipped aircraft responding to a ``Mayday-Mayday-Mayday'' call.
``We'll download our search and rescue pictures through a UHF radio link from the aircraft to the mobile command center,'' said Smith. ``If the aircraft is out of UHF radio range from a main Coast Guard base, the mobile command center can follow the usable signals along the coast.''
The mobile command post will be invaluable during conditions after a major hurricane, he added.
Smith said the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska played a role in developing the new Coast Guard technology.
The extent of the Valdez spill and the rapidly developing dimensions of environmental damage in Alaskan waters made it urgent that pictures of the area be circulated to concerned agencies, he said.
``They needed to know how to cope with that spill,'' Smith explained. ``We needed pictures in a hurry and the ability to deliver them to where they were needed. This new technology would have speeded cleanup operations.''
When there is plenty of time and several detailed pictures are required, the portable computer is brought ashore at the end of a flight and the digitized photo-information is sent directly over telephone lines.
So far the Coast Guard has developed the picture technology for PC computers only, but Smith foresees no difficulty in extending the idea to shore-based Macintosh systems.
Already several federal agencies have told the Coast Guard they are interested in special applications envisioned for the search and rescue technology, Smith added. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
The Coast Guard may begin to use digital cameras like the one held
by Conley Beacham, a chief avionics technician, to provide pictures
to rescuers and shore-based teams. Beacham photographed a burning
sailing vessel from a C-130 rescue aircraft.
by CNB