Fire extinguisher presence detection via OpenMV automatic inspection

Whether a fire extinguisher is in place is often only discovered when it is actually needed—by which time it is already too late. Relying on manual inspections results in low frequency and high risk of omissions, making it difficult to achieve continuous and effective monitoring. OpenMV transforms fire safety inspections into an “always-on” process through visual technology.

In public and industrial premises such as shopping malls, industrial parks, factory workshops, and office buildings, the compliance-based placement of fire extinguishers—whether they have been moved arbitrarily or obstructed by debris—directly affects emergency response efficiency during unexpected fire incidents. The absence of fire extinguishers or inability to access them immediately often results in missing the critical window for initial firefighting, leading to greater safety losses.

Traditional fire safety inspections primarily rely on manual periodic checks, which not only limit inspection frequency but also heavily depend on inspectors’ sense of responsibility and experience, making omissions, misjudgments, or situations where “inspections are passed but equipment is subsequently removed” likely, thereby hindering continuous and effective supervision.

The integration of SingTown’s OpenMV smart camera upgrades fire extinguisher inspections from manual patrols to round-the-clock, automated visual inspections.

The camera is permanently installed at the designated location corresponding to the fire-fighting equipment, operating stably over the long term to continuously capture on-site images of the fire extinguisher area without human intervention. OpenMV runs object detection algorithms on the camera’s edge device to accurately identify the fire extinguisher itself and, in conjunction with pre-defined installation zone rules, determines whether it is positioned as required. Additionally, through shape integrity and occlusion detection, the system can also identify whether the fire extinguisher is obstructed, toppled, or exhibits abnormal appearance, thereby assessing its operational readiness from multiple dimensions.

Upon detecting anomalies such as missing fire extinguishers, positional deviations, or obstructions, OpenMV can immediately generate an alert signal at the edge, triggering on-site audible and visual alarm devices or uploading event information to the management platform—achieving true “immediate anomaly detection and instant notification.”

Leveraging an edge-deployment architecture and on-device AI capabilities, OpenMV performs recognition and decision-making without continuously uploading video streams—reducing network and storage costs while significantly enhancing system stability and response speed.

Fire inspection has thus been upgraded from “periodic manual checks” to “7×24-hour online monitoring,” effectively reducing fire safety risks and enhancing overall emergency response capabilities.