Data: Search and Rescue with Airborne Optical Sectioning

This dataset supports the finding of our study "Search and Rescue with Airborne Optical Sectioning".

Abstract: We show that automated person detection under occlusion conditions can be significantly improved by combining multi-perspective images before classification. Here, we employed image integration by Airborne Optical Sectioning (AOS)—a synthetic aperture imaging technique that uses camera drones to capture unstructured thermal light fields—to achieve this with a recall of 93%. Finding lost or injured people in dense forests is not generally feasible with thermal recordings, but becomes practical with use of AOS integral images. Our findings lay the foundation for effective future search and rescue technologies that can be applied in combination with autonomous or manned aircraft.