Siemens Building Technologies has built a new fire detector that is sufficiently intelligent to differentiate between a real fire and the causes of common false alarms, such as cooking fumes, insects, steam and dust.
The new Sinteso fire detector can detect changes in temperature and see smoke particles in the air. Its built-in intelligence uses fuzzy logic, which enables computers to make more human-like decisions, to identify a real fire. This means that it has the ability to recognise smoke from non-threatening causes such as cooking fumes, burnt toast and cigarettes. Siemens is so confident in the new technology that it guarantees against false alarms – the only manufacturer in the world to do so.
Siemens fire safety manager Andrew Morgan said: “Today’s most common type of smoke alarms, which detect changes in an electrical current when smoke enters the chamber, were invented by a Siemens company in 1941 for industrial use. Nowadays they’re commonplace in the home. The Sinteso fire detector has initially been developed for businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, factories, hospitals and nursing homes, where there can be a lot of fumes and dust. The technology is so superior, though, that it will inevitably be introduced in domestic fire detectors for peoples’ homes in time.”
