Exit Signs Research Articles

WiFi and Vision-Integrated Fingerprint for Smartphone-Based Self-Localization in Public Indoor Scenes

Smartphone-based indoor localization systems are increasingly needed in various types of applications. This article proposes a novel WiFi and vision-integrated fingerprint (Wi-Vi fingerprint) for accurate and robust indoor localization. The method consists of two steps of fingerprint mapping and fingerprint localization. In the mapping step, the Wi-Vi fingerprints for all the sampling sites are computed by using EXIT signs as landmarks. In the localization step, a multiscale localization strategy is proposed, which includes coarse localization from weighted access points (WAPs)-based WiFi matching, the Gaussian weighted KNN (GW-KNN)-based image-level localization from holistic visual features, and finally, the metric localization for refinement. The proposed method has been tested in an indoor office building of 12 000 m2 and a mega-mall of 7200 m2 with different types of smartphones. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve 95% and 98% site recognition rates from image-level localization. The final localization errors after metric localization are less than a half meter on average.

“This Is My Exit Sign”: Job Control Deficit, Role Strain and Turnover in Mexican Journalism

ABSTRACT The objective of this article is to analyze the relationship between job control, role strain and turnover in Mexican journalism. Understood as the workers’ capacity to influence decision-making at an organizational level, job control is a concept that can help us predict turnover in this country’s newspapers. The analysis is based on 64 in-depth interviews with journalists and former journalists from three northern Mexican states: Baja California, Nuevo Leon and Sonora. The main finding is that this region’s news workers perceive and experience a deficit of job control as they feel that they cannot influence the definition of their own labor in terms of methods, tasks, quality, quantity, pace, schedules, supervision and salaries. As their job demands are high, this produces role strain, turnover intentions and turnover. By replacing the notion of professional autonomy with job control, this article examines how journalists respond to a perceived shortage of capacity to influence decision-making to try to improve our understanding of the changing nature of job continuity in the newspaper industry.

Influence of lit emergency signs and illuminated settings on walking speeds in smoky corridors

Evacuees within fire-affected buildings may have to escape through smoke-filled corridors without the aid of lighting, with a high probability of failing to escape. It is thus of vital importance to enhance evacuation safety procedures. It is equally necessary to study changes in walking speeds in situations of fire escapes in order to accurately estimate time required to escape. This paper focuses on measuring changes in walking speeds of evacuees, as influenced by emergency signs, smoke, and illumination. Participants, 20 non-disabled individuals with normal vision, were made to individually traverse a corridor in which conditions were controlled, including the presence/absence of an emergency exit sign, smoke density, and ceiling lights. Changes in walking speeds under the three aforementioned conditions, including smoky or blackout conditions, were accurately measured and their influences on walking speeds were identified. The results will be useful to estimate evacuation time in situations of fires.

Indoor Localization for Visually Impaired Travelers Using Computer Vision on a Smartphone.

Wayfinding is a major challenge for visually impaired travelers, who generally lack access to visual cues such as landmarks and informational signs that many travelers rely on for navigation. Indoor wayfinding is particularly challenging since the most commonly used source of location information for wayfinding, GPS, is inaccurate indoors. We describe a computer vision approach to indoor localization that runs as a real-time app on a conventional smartphone, which is intended to support a full-featured wayfinding app in the future that will include turn-by-turn directions. Our approach combines computer vision, existing informational signs such as Exit signs, inertial sensors and a 2D map to estimate and track the user's location in the environment. An important feature of our approach is that it requires no new physical infrastructure. While our approach requires the user to either hold the smartphone or wear it (e.g., on a lanyard) with the camera facing forward while walking, it has the advantage of not forcing the user to aim the camera towards specific signs, which would be challenging for people with low or no vision. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach with five blind travelers navigating an indoor space, with localization accuracy of roughly 1 meter once the localization algorithm has converged.

An Indoor Navigation App using Computer Vision and Sign Recognition.

Indoor navigation is a major challenge for people with visual impairments, who often lack access to visual cues such as informational signs, landmarks and structural features that people with normal vision rely on for wayfinding. Building on our recent work on a computer vision-based localization approach that runs in real time on a smartphone, we describe an accessible wayfinding iOS app we have created that provides turn-by-turn directions to a desired destination. The localization approach combines dead reckoning obtained using visual-inertial odometry (VIO) with information about the user's location in the environment from informational sign detections and map constraints. We explain how we estimate the user's distance from Exit signs appearing in the image, describe new improvements in the sign detection and range estimation algorithms, and outline our algorithm for determining appropriate turn-by-turn directions.

More than a tool for communication.

How disorienting would it be to travel to a country where you do not know the language and cannot read the street signs because the letters are unfamiliar? You would not even be able to distinguish an exit sign from a stop sign. Language enables the sharing of information, knowledge, and predictions about the world around us. Language also gives us poetry and fiction through which to express feelings and speculate about things or events that are not and may never become real. Humans and animals communicate through multiple modalities, such as sight, odor, and touch. In this special issue, we focus on the communication of sound—particularly language. What is language? Is human language special, or is it simply at the extreme end of an evolutionary spectrum? How does the brain produce and interpret language? Given the fundamental importance of communication in our society, it is no surprise that such a large part of the brain is engaged in the processing of language. Syntax, grammar, and word selection define common ground and differentiate distinct human languages. How do the young learn to make sense of the cacophony? Language is central to our existence as humans. With language we entertain, agitate, and encourage each other; we build community. Without language we are each islands unto ourselves. Language turns us into social beings. Some argue that the capacity for language is crucial to the runaway success of our species. Both the human brain and the language it enables help shape the world we inhabit today.

INDOOR 3D INTERACTIVE ASSET DETECTION USING A SMARTPHONE

Abstract. Building floor plans with locations of safety, security and energy assets such as IoT sensors, thermostats, fire sprinklers, EXIT signs, fire alarms, smoke detectors, routers etc. are vital for climate control, emergency security, safety, and maintenance of building infrastructure. Existing approaches to building survey are manual, and usually involve an operator with a clipboard and pen, or a tablet enumerating and localizing assets in each room. In this paper, we propose an interactive method for a human operator to use an app on a smart phone to (a) create the 2D layout of a room, (b) detect assets of interest, and (c) localize them within the layout. We use deep learning methods to train a neural network to recognize assets of interest, and use human in the loop interactive methods to correct erroneous recognitions by the networks. These corrections are then used to improve the accuracy of the system over time as the inspector moves from one room to another in a given building or from one building to the next; this progressive training and testing mechanism makes our system useful in building inspection scenarios where a given class of assets in a building are same instantiation of that object category, thus reducing the problem to instance, rather than category recognition. Experiments show our proposed method to achieve accuracy rate of 76% for testing 102 objects across 10 classes.

Influence of design and installation of emergency exit signs on evacuation speed

ABSTRACT Emergency exit signs have an important role in the fire safety of buildings. Exit signs help evacuees rapidly escape fire by following the fastest and safest escape routes immediately after the detection of fire. In other words, evacuation can greatly vary according to environmental factors regarding evacuation within the building. In this study, change in the evacuation speed by exit signs and environmental conditions was analyzed through experiments with 138 subjects. Four environmental factors in the experiment are visibility, distance between exit sign and evacuees, spatial configuration, and size and brightness of exit sign. In conclusion, changes in the spatial conditions around exit signs influenced the evacuation speeds of the subjects in poor visibility, and the changes in physical conditions of exit signs exerted more influence when the visibility was relatively better.

Study of Sound Direction Evacuation

Nowadays, many buildings have exit signs which are used to guide occupancies to the exit when an emergency happens. However the assistance given by signage based on visual means may be reduced or totally ineffective in a smoke filled environment. And occupants may not be familiar with the building and its associated emergency egress routes and may have to rely on exit maps, markings, or signage to guide them to an exit or other means of evacuation. There are other limitations of signage-based visual means. Persons with visual disabilities will have difficulty with emergency information that relies on visual cues. Other weaknesses are that the illuminated exit signs may often compete with nearby bright lights or other visual elements. Exit signs may be inadvertently blocked from view due to renovations or remodeling of building.Directional sound is a new kind of signage which can help occupants to pinpoint instantly where the sound is coming from and find the exit quickly. Used as a directional sound pattern, broadband sound can enable localization cures due to all binaural transfer function and precedence effect mechanisms. And broadband sound is distinctive from the audible sounds of bells and fire emergency voice speakers.The fire alarm sounders and the fire emergency voice speakers are two important sounds in a fire emergency evacuation. So the compatibility of the directional sounders with fire alarm sounders and fire emergency voice speakers is very important in application. The three sound used in a fire emergency evacuation should work timesharingly and alternately.Ambient sound levels may greatly affect the performance of the directional sounders, for the ambient sound may possibly have wide spectral range. A directional sound test room is built according to Annex B Directional test for sounders of the British standard BS PAS 41:2003[1] Directional Sounders – Requirements and tests. And tests were made to see the performance of different frequency distribution sounds used for evacuation direction under ambient sound levels.

What color are emergency exit signs? Egress behavior differs from verbal report

Illuminated emergency exit signs inform building occupants about safe egress routes in emergencies. These exit signs are often found in the presence of other colored signs, which may distract occupants when searching for safe exits. Such distractions can lead to confusing and even harmful outcomes, especially if occupants misinterpret the sign colors, mistaking non-exit signs for exit signs. We studied which colored signs people were most likely to infer were exit signs in a simulated emergency evacuation using virtual reality (VR). Participants were immersed in a virtual room with two doors (left and right), and an illuminated sign with different colored vertical bars above each door. They saw all pairwise combinations of six sign colors across trials. On each trial, a fire alarm sounded, and participants walked to the door that they thought was the exit. We tested two hypotheses: a local exposure hypothesis that color inferences are determined by exit sign colors in the local environment (i.e., red) and a semantic association hypothesis that color inferences are determined by color-concept associations (i.e. green associated with “go” and “safety”). The results challenged the local exposure hypothesis and supported the semantic association hypothesis. Participants predominantly walked toward green signs, even though the exit signs in the local environment—including the building where the experiment took place—were red. However, in a post-experiment survey, most participants reported that exit signs should be red. The results demonstrated a dissociation between the way observers thought they would behave in emergency situations (red = exit) and the way they did behave in simulated emergencies (green = exit). These findings have implications for the design of evacuation systems. Observers, and perhaps designers, do not always anticipate how occupants will behave in emergency situations, which emphasizes the importance of behavioral evaluations for egress safety.

The Development of Exit Sign Systems for Rack-Type Warehouses

The Development of Exit Sign Systems for Rack-Type Warehouses

Prototype development and test of a server-independent smart exit sign system: An algorithm, a hardware configuration, and its communication reliability

Abstract This study introduces the first working prototype of a server-independent smart exit sign system (SISES) and validates its communication reliability. A smart exit sign system (SES) is a new type of evacuation guidance system that changes the directions of exit signs toward safe paths. Thus far, only a handful of SESs have been proposed on a conceptual level and assumed that each sign node was controlled by a central server. They are, however, complex and expensive to install and vulnerable during a fire. To overcome these limitations, an SISES, which communicates over a wireless sensor network without a central server, was proposed. This study tests the communication reliability and speed of the SISES—the most critical factors for stable operation. The results show that the SISES can communicate reliably in various conditions and that it takes less than 4 s to update the entire system installed at a 3392 m2 building.

How did I miss that? Developing mixed hybrid visual search as a \u2018model system\u2019 for incidental finding errors in radiology

In a real world search, it can be important to keep ‘an eye out’ for items of interest that are not the primary subject of the search. For instance, you might look for the exit sign on the freeway, but you should also respond to the armadillo crossing the road. In medicine, these items are known as “incidental findings,” findings of possible clinical significance that were not the main object of search. These errors (e.g., missing a broken rib while looking for pneumonia) have medical consequences for the patient and potential legal consequences for the physician. Here we report three experiments intended to develop a ‘model system’ for incidental findings – a paradigm that could be used in the lab to develop strategies to reduce incidental finding errors in the clinic. All the experiments involve ‘hybrid’ visual search for any of several targets held in memory. In this ‘mixed hybrid search task,’ observers search for any of three specific targets (e.g., this rabbit, this truck, and this spoon) and three categorical targets (e.g., masks, furniture, and plants). The hypothesis is that the specific items are like the specific goals of a real world search and the categorical targets are like the less well-defined incidental findings that might be present and that should be reported. In all these experiments, varying target prevalence, number of targets, etc., the categorical targets are missed at a much higher rate than the specific targets. This paradigm shows promise as a model of the incidental finding problem.

Evaluating the effectiveness of an improved active dynamic signage system using full scale evacuation trials

The need for exit signs that attract attention when they need to be conspicuous, to redirect people to not just an exit route, but a viable and if possible an optimal exit route in an evolving emergency has driven the development of a new generation of advanced signage, the Intelligent Active Dynamic Signage System (IADSS). The IADSS, attempts to meet these needs through the development of a novel Active Dynamic Signage System (ADSS) which can be controlled by an intelligent decision support system. This paper presents results that refine the effectiveness of the ADSS. When an exit route is considered non-viable, the adapted ADSS provides not only negative information i.e. that an exit is no longer available, but also positive information, i.e. indicating a viable alternative exit. In addition, in situations where a voice alarm system is used in conjunction with the ADSS, it is also important to ensure that the messaging does not contradict the intent of the ADSS. The improved ADSS was tested in full-scale evacuation trials in a rail station. Results suggest that the improved ADSS with voice alarm messaging that does not contradict the signage system successfully redirected 66% of the participants to the intended exit.

Real-time Intelligent Exit Path Indicator Using BLE Beacon Enabled Emergency Exit Sign Controller

Emergency lights and exit signs are an indispensable part of safety precautions for effective evacuation in case of emergency in public buildings. These emergency sign indicates safe escape routes and emergency doors, using an internationally recognizable sign. However visibility of those signs drops drastically in case of emergency situations like fire smoke, etc. and loss of visibility causes serious problems for safety evacuation. This paper propose a novel emergency light and exit sign built-in with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacon to assist the emergency self-guiding evacuation using devices for crisis and emergency management to avoid panic condition inside the buildings. In this approach, the emergency light and exit sign with the BLE beacons deployed in the indoor environments and the smart devices detect their indoor positions, direction to move, and next exit sign position from beacon messages and interact with map server in the Internet / Intranet over the available LTE and/or Wi-Fi network connectivity. The map server generate an optimal emergency exit path according to the nearest emergency exit based on a novel graph generation method for less route computation for each smart device. All emergency exit path data interfaces among three system components, the emergency exit signs, map server, and smart devices, have been defined for modular implementation of our emergency evacuation system. The proposed exit sign experimental system has been deployed and evaluated in real-time building environment thoroughly and gives a good evidence that the modular design of the proposed exit sign system and a novel approach to compute emergency exit path route based on the BLE beacon message, map server, and smart devices is competitive and viable.

Environment Adaptive Emergency Evacuation Route GUIDE through Digital Signage Systems

Nowadays, the most of commercial buildings are build-out with complex architecture and decorated with more complicated interiors of buildings so establishing intelligible escape routes becomes an important case of fire or other emergency in a limited time. The commercial buildings are already equipped with multiple exit signs and these exit signs may create confusion and leads the people into different directions under emergency. This can jeopardize the emergency situation into a chaotic state, especially in a complex layout buildings. There are many research focused on implementing different approached to improve the exit sign system with better visual navigating effects, such as the use of laser beams, the combination of audio and video cues, etc. However the digital signage system based emergency exit sign management is one of the best solution to guide people under emergency situations to escape. This research paper, propose an intelligent evacuation route GUIDE that uses the combination centralized Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and digital signage for people safety and avoids dangers from emergency conditions. This proposed system applies WSN to detect the environment condition in the building and uses an evacuation algorithm to estimate the safe route to escape using the sensor information and then activates the signage system to display the safe evacuation route instruction GUIDE according to the location the signage system is installed. This paper presented the prototype of the proposed signage system and execution time to find the route with future research directions. The proposed system provides a natural intelligent evacuation route interface for self or remote operation in facility management to efficiently GUIDE people to the safe exit under emergency conditions.

Flexible Intelligent Exit Sign Management of Cloud-Connected Buildings

Emergencies and disasters can happen any time without any warning, and things can change and escalate very quickly, and often it is swift and decisive actions that make all the difference. It is a responsibility of the building facility management to ensure that a proven evacuation plan in place to cover various worst scenario to handled automatically inside the facility. To mapping out optimal safe escape routes is a straightforward undertaking, but does not necessarily guarantee residents the highest level of protection. The emergency evacuation navigation approach is a state-of-the-art that designed to evacuate human livings during an emergencies based on real-time decisions using live sensory data with pre-defined optimum path finding algorithm. The poor decision on causalities and guidance may apparently end the evacuation process and cannot then be remedied. This paper propose a cloud connected emergency evacuation system model to react dynamically to changes in the environment in emergency for safest emergency evacuation using IoT based emergency exit sign system. In the previous researches shows that the performance of optimal routing algorithms for evacuation purposes are more sensitive to the initial distribution of evacuees, the occupancy levels, and the type and level of emergency situations. The heuristic-based evacuees routing algorithms have a problem with the choice of certain parameters which causes evacuation process in real-time. Therefore, this paper proposes an evacuee routing algorithm that optimizes evacuation by making using high computational power of cloud servers. The proposed algorithm is evaluated via a cloud-based simulator with different “simulated casualties” are then re-routed using a Dijkstra’s algorithm to obtain new safe emergency evacuation paths against guiding evacuees with a predetermined routing algorithm for them to emergency exits . The performance of proposed approach can be iterated as long as corrective action is still possible and give safe evacuation paths and dynamically configure the emergency exit signs to react for real-time instantaneous safe evacuation guidance.

Novel Geo-Location Technique for Tourism Guide and Emergency Evacuation at Grand Mosque Al Haram Makkah

Grand Mosque AL Haram is always crowded with pilgrim. The most concentration of crowd happens during Hajj season. Even the grand mosque is already furnished with a lot of route sign board, exit or emergency sign boards. Staff is also available almost everywhere. There are some obstacles that hajjis faced when they experience lost during their pilgrim pray, these obstacles such as, language or communication, haji’s age, fatigue, minor sense of direction, panic, etc. Therefore, in this paper, we present novel geo-location technique that combines the augmented reality technology to give proper direction towards hajjis. The A Star algorithm is also presented according to the real geo-location position of grand Mosque Al Haram door. First scenario, the simulation runs toward selected 40 doors to find the optimum cost/time for travel and suggested to hajjis. The second scenario is simulating 200 agents going through multiple exit doors who are then monitored the flow of movement of the agents to reveal their concentration and the importance of smart guidance like the proposed system to provide alternative exit path. The simulation shows the promising result that is potential to be used by hajjis or government for helping haji’s.

An international survey and full‐scale evacuation trial demonstrating the effectiveness of the active dynamic signage system concept

SummaryRapid evacuation from large buildings is challenging because of their complex layout making wayfinding difficult. While emergency signage is widely used to aid wayfinding, recent research demonstrates that only 38% of people perceive conventional exit signs. Furthermore, conventional signage only conveys single and passive information and so cannot adapt to changing conditions. The EU FP7 GETAWAY project addresses this problem through the development of a unique and innovative Intelligent Active Dynamic Signage System (IADSS), which routes occupants to their optimal exits during an evolving incident. This paper presents two key steps in the development of the IADSS concept. First, a novel negated signage concept identifying that an exit route is no longer viable was devised and tested using an international survey. The results demonstrate that the negation concept can be clearly understood by over 90% of the sample. The second step involved two full‐scale evacuation trials in a rail station that demonstrated that it was possible to direct over 60% of the participants to the targeted exit through the use of the Active Dynamic Signage System (ADSS). The ADSS makes use of the negated signage concept and a development involving a green flashing arrow within the standard emergency exit sign. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Effect of the Running‐Man Emergency Exit Sign and Its Installed Location on Human Directional Choice

SummaryUnderstanding the meaning of an emergency exit sign is essential for escaping from a building during a disaster. According to International Organization for Standardization 7010:2011, there are leftward and rightward running‐man exit signs indicating the location of an exit door. However, there is neither an application rule regarding which direction the sign should point nor a rule for where it should be attached in the horizontal dimension. We examined the effect of the heading direction of the running man and its horizontal locations on the selection of exit directions. A modified spatial Stroop task as an unforced‐choice task was designed by combining the running man's heading direction and its horizontal location. The results showed both facilitation and inhibition effects, conflict adaptation, and post‐error slowing reflecting top‐down control. These findings suggest that the heading direction of the running‐man exit sign includes evident directionality. This should be considered in designing and establishing standardized emergency exit signs. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.