Abstract
Effective communication among first responders during response to natural and human-made large-scale catastrophes has increased tremendously during the last decade. However, most efforts to achieve a higher degree of effectiveness in communication lack synergy between the environment and the technology involved to support first responders operations. This article presents a natural and intuitive interface to support Stigmergy; or communication through the environment, based on intuitively marking and retrieving information from the environment with a pointer. A prototype of the system was built and tested in the field, however the pointing activity revealed challenges regarding accuracy due to limitations of the sensors used. The results obtained from these field tests were the basis for this research effort and will have the potential to enable communication through the environment for first responders operating in highly dynamical and inhospitable disaster relief environments.
Highlights
In the aftermath of a large-scale natural or manmade disaster, the effectiveness of first responders (FRs) continues to play a key role in determining the time required to put the urban infrastructure back to normal operations
Information Systems (GIS) and location based applications seem suitable for desktop computers or some mobile communication devices utilized on command posts, but are of limited applicability for firefighters or rescue crews trying to locate people from a collapsed structure, where their hands and their cognitive resources are focused on tasks strongly tied to ongoing activities in a chaotic building infrastructure
The overall performance is expected to significantly improve due to fewer location errors, better overall focus, and reduced communication time/effort between FRs if compared to GeographicInformation Systems (GIS)-based navigation systems
Summary
In the aftermath of a large-scale natural or manmade disaster, the effectiveness of first responders (FRs) continues to play a key role in determining the time required to put the urban infrastructure back to normal operations. A variety of approaches for disaster relieve have been researched in the past, generating and determining coordination and communications problems at both machine-to-machine and human-to-human layers [1]. Traditional communication and coordination platforms and tools seem to have limited capability to enable effective collaboration among field FRs, given the non-natural and intuitive human-to-machine and human-to-human interfaces. This article presents a novel approach for the development of technological support for FRs conducting field operations. This approach is based on enabling basic language capabilities [4]
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