AI and thermal drones are helping find the lost in B.C.’s mountains [Video]

Every year, thousands of people walk, run, bike or ski in Vancouver’s iconic North Shore Mountains. 

But some of those trips don’t go according to plan. More than 100 people call North Shore Rescue every year because they got lost or injured in the dense and steep coastal rainforest. 

Locating the lost or missing can be a gruelling task.

North Shore Rescue, which says it is Canada’s busiest volunteer search and rescue (SAR) team, has been doing that since 1965. But combinations of emerging technology, like drones equipped with thermal imaging and artificial intelligence software, are helping it bring people to safety faster than ever. 

It’s a solution that combines the best of the needs of search and rescue and the capabilities of new tools on the market, said Grant Baldwin, a drone operator for North Shore Rescue (NSR). 

Subjects stick out “quite bright” at 60 to 90 metres in …