A Hiker Was Missing for Nearly a Year. Then an AI System Spotted His Helmet

How long does it take to identify the helmet of a hiker lost in a 183-hectare mountain area, analyzing 2,600 frames taken by a drone from approximately 50 meters away? If done with a human eye, weeks or months. If analyzed by an artificial intelligence system, one afternoon. The National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps, known by it’s Italian initialism CNSAS, relied on AI to find the body of a person missing in Italy's Piedmont region on the north face of Monviso—the highest peak in the Cottian Alps—since September 2024.

According to Saverio Isola, the CNSAS drone pilot who intervened along with his colleague Giorgio Viana, the operation—including searching for any sign of the missing hiker, the discovery and recovery of his body, and a stoppage due to bad weather—lasted less than three days.

With his back to the ground, his gaze fixed on the mountains, 600 meters below the summit, the body of 64-year-old Ligurian doctor Nicola Ivaldo was found on the morning of Thursday, July 31, more than 10 months after his disappearance, thanks to his helmet that clashed with the rest of the landscape.

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