Skip to Content

Fire Sight

Rushing fearlessly into burning buildings, firefighters seem at times like superheroes. If researchers at a company called Zybron have their way, firefighters will actually acquire a superhuman power: the ability to see through a wall of fire that might conceal someone in need of rescue.

Zybron and other firms have already built devices that use infrared detectors to peer through thick smoke. But a fire’s bright light and searing heat blots out the weak infrared signal given off by a human body on the other side of the flames. So Zybron, based in Beaver Creek, Ohio, is developing a helmet-mounted system that uses a diode laser to beam out light at a wavelength outside the spectrum of fire. The light bounces off objects behind the fire and back into a detector on the helmet; filters that pass only the laser’s wavelength permit the system to create an image of the hidden area, which the firefighter views on a liquid crystal display attached to the visor. Zybron hopes to begin field tests late this year.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.